The story
Read it all →How Wood Dale came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Wood Dale.
Wood Dale was originally known as Lester's Station, after John Lester, an early settler.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Quick answers
How Wood Dale began
When was Wood Dale founded?
1895
The Wood Dale post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1928. Another post office, Wooddale (1895), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 230 in 19302020 census: 14,012131 years
How historic is Wood Dale?
C−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 18% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Wood Dale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1928.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Wood Dale’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wood Dale is more historic than 18% of U.S. towns, #656 of 768 in Illinois. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Wood Dale’s overall grade.
Founding era1895, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19402.4% of homes (±1.5) · typical IL town 10.6% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical IL town 0.5 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 18%
NewerOlder
Illinois towns of 2,500+ (768)Ahead of 15%
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 Wood Dale’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 D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±1.5 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1928.
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 Wood Dale’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Wood Dale’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Wood Dale’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.On the map
Wood Dale on the map, 1891 to 1993
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wood Dale. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1891Riverside sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Wood Dale.
Timeline
Wood Dale, 1891 to 1989
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Wood Dale, decade by decade
Today1 recent
2011People over time
Wood Dale, census by census
Grew from 230 people in 1930 to 14,012 in 2020, more than tenfold.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wood Dale’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices and places now gone
Wood Dale’s post office has been open since 1931. Another post office, Wooddale, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Wooddale
Wood Dale
18901960today
Gone or out of use
Superior SchoolschoolZion Christian Schoolschool
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Wood Dale’s history
What year was Wood Dale founded?
The Wood Dale post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1928.
How does Wood Dale rank for history?
Wood Dale is more historic than 18% of U.S. towns, #656 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 Wood Dale?
2% of Wood Dale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.5 points), against a typical 11% for an Illinois town; the median home was built in 1973.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.