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History · Tower Hill

Tower Hill’s post office opened in 1857, and 35% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1899 on and the census since 1880.

1857first post office
0on the National Register
35%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Tower Hill began

When was Tower Hill founded?

1857

The Tower Hill post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 391 in 18802020 census: 485169 years
Founding year: the first Tower Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Tower Hill’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Tower Hill are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,040 in 1910; 485 people lived here in 2020.Mapped building by building3 fire insurance maps, 1899 to 1914, drew every building in Tower Hill.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Tower Hill’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Tower Hill’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Tower Hill, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,040

Peaked at 1,040 in 1910; 485 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Tower Hill’s Wikipedia page.

Every building

Tower Hill, building by building, 1899–1914

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.

Tower Hill fire insurance map, 1899, sheet 11899Sheet 1 of 2
Edition
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Tower Hill came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Tower Hill.

Read it all →

Tower Hill was originally surveyed by Elias Smith in June, 1857 and a post office was soon opened. A mill was built in 1863 and was the main source of income for the settlement's economy. Tower Hill was incorporated as a village in 1872.

The large railroad depot in the neighboring city of Shelbyville spurred an increase in population by the turn of the 20th-century.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Tower Hill, 1857 to 1942

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1857Post officeThe Tower Hill post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 1,040
  5. 1942On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Tower Hill on the map, 1942 to 1981

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Tower Hill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Tower Hill on the 1942 USGS mapTower Hill on the 1981 USGS map1942Shelbyville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Tower Hill.

Questions about Tower Hill’s history

What year was Tower Hill founded?

The Tower Hill post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.