Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Dr. Thomas Hall's Office. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1870.
The Toulon post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Toulon is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Toulon’s 6.7 sits above most of its state (79% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1886Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Toulon yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1844. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,292 to 1,193 (-8%).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Toulon’s history is told.
Passages that mention Toulon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
According to the Ljiited States census for 1910 the population in that year was 2, .379, which included parts of the cities of Toulon and Wyoming. There are nine school districts in tlie township, outside of the City of Toulon, in which ten teachers were employed during the school year of 1914-1.5. and in 1914 the taxable value of the property, including railroad property, was $1,401,244.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
county was on December -i, 1849, when the county court appointed Samuel G. Wright, Oliver Whitaker and Samuel Reatty a conunittee to "receive subscriptions and report plans for the building of a female seminarj' in the Town of Toulon, under the third section of 'An act to authorize the County Commissioners' Court, or the County Court, when organized, to sell lots in the Town of Toulon,' ap^n-oved February 12, 1849, and report at the ]March term of this court in 18.50."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The question of subscribing $10,000 to aid the Peoria and Rock Island Railroad was submitted to the citizens of the ''Town of Toulon," June -i, 1868, when 108 voted for and 10 against. Gill, Nixon and II. B. Johnson were judges, and J. M Brown and I). Tinlin clerks.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
We may remark in passing, that of these children, the first four were born in England, prior to the emigration, the three remaining ones being native Illinoisans. Mrs. Emery was the first child ever born in the town of Toulon, to which place the family removed soon after the site was surveyed, and have resided within its limits since July 6, 1842.
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.
Born hereJohn Joseph Seerley is born here
Born hereJohnny Walker is born here
In the archiveMap of Toulon, Illinois (1907)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Historic American Buildings Survey Joseph Hill, Photo…
Date?Dr. Hall House & Office, 301 Franklin Street
Date?Dr. Hall House, 300 block of Franklin StreetEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Toulon. 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 Toulon.
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 Toulon’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.
Between 904 and 1,400 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Toulon’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Toulon’s post office has been open since 1844.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Toulon post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Toulon is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns. 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.
One place: the Dr. Thomas Hall's Office (listed 2025).
48% of Toulon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1944.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
