Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Tamms was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. Its Register listing is the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Depot. Below: maps from 1934 on and the census since 1910.
The Tamms post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Tamms’s history is told.
Peaked at 826 in 1980; 430 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Tamms’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Tamms.
The railroad service ended in the 1970s and therefore the economy declined.
Tamms is the location of the Tamms Correctional Center, a super-maximum correctional facility that was operated by the Illinois Department of Corrections and housed the State of Illinois execution chamber. Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011. This prison was closed in 2013.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Tamms. 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 Tamms.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Tamms post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad Depot (listed 1986).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), 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) 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.
2013
