Founding year: the first Westville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Westville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Westville is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #365 of 768 in Illinois. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Westville’s overall grade.
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 Westville’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Westville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town was laid out in May 1873 by William P. and Elizabeth A. West, although it started out as a station on the Danville and Southwestern Railroad, and there had been settlements in this area prior to the platting. The first known settler was Moses Scott, who purchased land and built a structure in 1827. The post office was established on January 12, 1874. Telephone lines were first installed in 1900, and electricity arrived in 1901.
Passages that mention Westville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources1879 · page 525Read the page →
Read the text
Westville, a station on the Danville & Southwestern railroad, four miles from Georgetown, was laid out by William P. West and E. A. West, on the southeast corner of section 6, in May, 1873. Two blocks only were platted for record. Parker & Ellsworth commenced business in 1872, west of the railroad. When thev moved across to the east side, Cook & Alexander bought them out, and began a general mercantile trade. Dukes & Doops succeeded that firm, and Boone & Jumps Brothers followed them. They continued in business here only
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources1879Read the page →
Read the text
cuse, could be transported to Danville and sold cheaper than it could be made here), ran diagonally across it. The Danville & Southwestern railroad runs through the town almost parallel with the " State Road," and has on it the two stations of Georgetown and Westville. The township was originally nearly all timber, there being only about one-third of it along its western border and in its center, which was prairie. Some of the earliest settlements in the count}7 were made within its borders, and considerable farms were cleared before people
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.
Timeline
Westville, 1874 to 1946
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
The Westville post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Westville rank for history?
Westville is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #365 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.
How old are the homes in Westville?
43% of Westville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.5 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1946.
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 (6), 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), 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.
1946
1946![Wilson, Charles F., December 6, 1927 (Westville, Illinois) [ANS Chapman brothers business correspondence]](https://images.townratings.com/story/3940/86634142611abb8fcac1-s.jpg)
Date?
2007
2007
