Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Gray-Watkins Mill · Photo: lester1950 · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 53% of U.S. towns · #378 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Gray-Watkins Mill. Most of Sugar Grove Township was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1932 on, and the census since 1960.
The Sugar Grove Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Grouse (1847) and Jericho (1847), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sugar Grove Township is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #378 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Sugar Grove Township’s 1.0 sits near the middle of its state (62% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sugar Grove Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sugar Grove Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Sugar Grove is a village in Kane County, Illinois, United States. The population at the 2020 census was 9,278.
Its first post office opened in 1840. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 19,618 to 20,684 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2023Airport Diagram (KARR)
2020Vintage fighter jet at the Air Classics Museum of Avi…
2020Vintage fighter jet at the Air Classics Museum of Avi…
2015BN 3016 at SugarGrove, IL on December 12, 1987
2008Aurora Municipal Airport (Illinois)-4
2008Aurora Municipal Airport (Illinois)-3
2008Aurora Municipal Airport (Illinois)-2
2008Aurora Municipal Airport (Illinois)-1Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sugar Grove Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sugar Grove Township.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Sugar Grove Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Grew from 326 people in 1960 to 9,278 in 2020, more than tenfold.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sugar Grove Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Sugar Grove Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sugar Grove Township is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #378 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.
2 listings: 1 building, among them the Gray-Watkins Mill (listed 1979, the first).
2% of Sugar Grove Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 2001.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1996
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