Riverdale’s post office opened in 1874, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #262 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 90 buildings. Below: 18 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1880.
The Riverdale post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, South Lawn (1875), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 450 in 18802020 census: 10,663152 years
How historic is Riverdale?
B+
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Riverdale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Riverdale’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Riverdale is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #262 of 768 in Illinois. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Riverdale’s overall grade.
Few Illinois towns list much on the Register (a typical Illinois town has 0.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Riverdale’s 87.0 sits above most of its state (93% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 90 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.3 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Riverdale’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Village of Riverdale was incorporated in 1893. In 1904 the Englishman and former Chicago glucose manufacturer Charles Pope (1843–1922) purchased property in Riverdale at what is today the west side of Indiana Avenue with the intention of establishing a beet sugar factory. The property was previously occupied by The Riverdale Distillery, which had been established by the Union Copper Distilling Company of Chicago in 1871 to manufacture fermentum yeast. Located on the south bank of the Little Calumet river with access to the Illinois Central tracks, the beet sugar factory opened in 1905 with a capacity of 350 tons of beet sugar per day, a production rate that was eventually increased to 500 tons per day. The factory was sold by Pope's heirs in 1922 to the Midwest Sugar Refining Company, who added sugar to the product line that was produced from cane supplied from Cuba and Puerto Rico…
Passages that mention Riverdale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cook County, Illinois1909 · page 317Read the page →
Read the text
Generally in early times it was called Dolton rather than Riverdale, in honor of Mr. Dolton. The postoffice, however, was Riverdale, and later the place became called Dolton Junction. The Riverdale distillery was an important early enterprise. Immense lumber interests have been conducted there. It is now one of the substantial suburbs of the city.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Cook County, Illinois. From the earliest period to the present time1884 · page 628Read the page →
Read the text
The I'erriams, who settled at Riverdale previous to this time, together with other settlers as far south as the township of Bloom, made Portland their trading and market town. Charles and Joseph B. Robinson came in 1840, and two years later built a store house on the Wabash road.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Riverdale, 1874 to 1986
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Riverdale post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Riverdale rank for history?
Riverdale is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #262 of 768 in Illinois. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Riverdale?
One place: the Pacesetter Gardens Historic District (listed 2005).
How old are the homes in Riverdale?
15% of Riverdale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.3 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1957.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (18), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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