Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1887 on, and the census since 1870.
Virginia dates its founding to 1836 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Virginia is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns. 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 Virginia’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: Wikidata (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 Virginia’s history is told.
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.
1887Sheet 2 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions 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 hereFinis E. Downing is born here
In the archiveHotel, Warm Springs
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveIllinois, Virginia quadrangle
Born hereHoward D. McKibben is born hereWikipedia doesn’t have a history of Virginia yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Virginia is a city and the county seat in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,514 at the 2020 census.
Virginia was established in 1836. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,611 to 1,514 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Virginia, cut from the printed page as they were published.
French and Indian, and in the latter language was frequently em ployed as interpreter. Not until 1785 was this little band of American pioneers reinforced. Then came Joseph Ogle, Joseph Warley and James Andrews, all from Virginia and each with a large family. In the following year the American settlements were again augmented by the arrival of James Lemen, George Atchersou, and David Waddell with their families, besides several others.*
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
oppose oppression, he left his home in Virginia to rear his family on free soil, he and Jefferson both agreed that, sooner or later, there would be a mighty contest made to fasten slavery on the Northwestern Territory; and the battle and victory were by no means won until the fierce and later contest to make Illinois a free State was consummated in 1818. When he left Virginia, with his young family, he had the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
territories; that among their small farmers they would be "better fed and clothed than where they were crowded on large plantations by hundreds," etc.* In March, 1803, Mr. Randolph, of Virginia, as chairman of the special committee, reported that "the rapidly increasing popula tion of the State of Ohio sufficiently evinces, in the opinion of your committee, that the labor of slaves is not necessary to promote the growth and settlement of colonies in that region. That this
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Virginia. 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 Virginia.
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 Virginia’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 954 and 1,825 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Virginia’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1836, according to Wikidata. Virginia’s post office opened in 1839, and the census of 1870 counted 954 people here.
Virginia is more historic than 66% 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.
24% of Virginia’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (5), the Library of Congress (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.
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