Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper and old-book passages.
The Riley post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Riley Centre (1870), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 Riley’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Riley.
Riley was originally called Union, and under the latter name was founded in 1871. It was renamed Riley Center in the late 1870s. Riley was the name of a railroad employee.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Riley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
others, organized the German Insurance Company of Freeport, 111. He was the first Secretary of the Company and served in that capacity for several years. In 1880 he moved to Riley County, Kan., and located near Riley Center, where he remained till 1884, when he came to Leonardville, where lie has since resided. He is one of the founders of the town, and enjoys here as well as elsewhere the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
iously employed but principally in a brick yard and sugar refinery, until in the fall of 1868, when he went up the river by a steamer to Kansas City, Mo., and from there by rail to Riley County, this State, of which he has since been a resident. He has performed no unimportant part in the growth and development of Riley County, and the estate which he hasbuilt up is a standing monument to the
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.
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 Riley’s page.
Retake this view · +15Riley’s post office has been open since 1888. Another post office, Riley Centre, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Riley post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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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