Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns · #375 of 768 in Illinois. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1880.
The Virden post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.
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, Virden is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #375 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Virden’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Illinois towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 Virden’s history is told.
Peaked at 4,682 in 1920; 3,231 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Virden’s Wikipedia page.
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.
1894Sheet 1 of 5Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Virden.
Virden sits atop a large seam of coal. After the 1850s, when the Chicago and Alton Railroad was completed, it became possible to mine Virden coal and ship it long distances for a profit. Throughout the second half of the 1800s, Virden prospered and grew as a coal-mining town.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Virden, cut from the printed page as they were published.
of its citizens, but in a business way. Virden is a first class little city and its mining interests made for it one of the principal coal centers of the county. Its mercantile houses compare very favorably with places of more consequence and the buildings, which surround the public square, are, many of them, new and attractive in appearance. In 1910 Jackson street, considered the main thoroughfare of the city, was paved with brick from Dye street to Madison. Within the past seven years about twenty miles of cement sidewalks have been laid and a project is now on foot by the citizens for the building of waterworks. For
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Virden. 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 Virden.
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 Virden’s page.
Retake this view · +15Virden’s post office has been open since 1852.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Virden post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Virden is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #375 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.
37% of Virden’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.1 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (1), 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, 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.
