Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #251 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Pierre Martin House. Below: maps from 1934 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 72% 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 Loaf Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #251 of 768 in Illinois. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Loaf Township’s 3.0 sits above most of its state (70% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 Loaf 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sugar Loaf Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 7,322 to 6,931 (-5%).
Passages that mention Sugar Loaf Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Henry Schwartz was the first mayor of Dupo and later served as city alderman. From 1917 to 1920 he was supervisor of Sugar Loaf Township. He was one of the organizers and chairman of a league to improve the roads between East St. Louis and Waterloo. For six years he served on the Dupo Board of Education, was chosen the first president of the community high school board. Since 1923 he has been postmaster in Dupo; he is a stockholder and a director m the
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltPierre Martin House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sugar Loaf 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 Loaf Township.
The 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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Sugar Loaf Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #251 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 Pierre Martin House (listed 1990, the first).
16% of Sugar Loaf Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
