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History · Litchfield Township

15% of Litchfield Township’s homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 1 buildings. Below: 18 old photos and papers and maps from 1967 on.

1on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
18old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Litchfield Township’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Litchfield Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A town in old photos18 old photos, postcards and papers.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Litchfield Township, and 1 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · By decade

Litchfield Township, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s18 items
Opera House1900Opera HouseCreamery1908CreameryGarfield School1908Garfield SchoolCentral Park1908Central ParkHigh school1908High schoolPresbyterian Church1908Presbyterian ChurchCatholic Church1908Catholic ChurchCourt House1908Court HouseEpiscopal Church1908Episcopal ChurchLincoln School1908Lincoln SchoolLake Ripley1908Lake RipleyLake Ripley1908Lake RipleyLake Ripley1908Lake RipleyLake Ripley1908Lake RipleyLake Ripley1908Lake RipleyPublic Library1908Public LibraryCentral Park walk1908Central Park walkGreat Northern Depot1908Great Northern Depot
1910s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Ness
1860–1865
Lake Harold
1862–1886
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Evergreen Mobile Home Park
Gone or out of use
Lake Harold Post Officepost officeLake Harold Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Litchfield Township
Ness

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Litchfield Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Litchfield Township.

Read it all →

Litchfield Township was originally called Ness Township, for settler Ole Halvorson Ness, and under the latter name was organized in 1858. The present name, adopted circa 1869, is after its largest settlement, Litchfield.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Litchfield Township, 1860 to 1967

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1860Post officeThe Ness post office opens
  3. 1862Post officeThe Lake Harold post office opens
  4. 1865Post officeThe Ness post office closes
  5. 1886Post officeThe Lake Harold post office closes
  6. 20th century
  7. 1900In the archiveOpera House
  8. 1967On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
On the map

Litchfield Township on the map, 1967 to 1994

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Litchfield Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Litchfield Township on the 1967 USGS mapLitchfield Township on the 1994 USGS map1967Litchfield South sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Litchfield Township.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Opera House
Retake this viewOpera House, 1900

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Litchfield Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Litchfield Township

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2025
Ness Lutheran Church and Cemetery
Ness Lutheran Church and Cemetery
Districts
All 1 listings
Ness Lutheran Church and CemeteryDistrict · listed 2025

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Litchfield Township

Nobody well known was born in Litchfield Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Gale SondergaardAmerican actress · b. 1899
Ann D. MontgomeryUnited States federal judge · b. 1949
E
Elmer FeigAmerican architect · b. 1897
M
Mike SchultzAmerican Paralympic snowboarder · b. 1981
H
Herbert W. ChilstromAmerican bishop · b. 1931
Vernon Arnold HauglandAmerican journalist · b. 1908
Help out

Finish Litchfield Township’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewOpera House: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Litchfield5 historic placesB+Acton TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townDarwin Township1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGreenleaf TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townHarvey TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Litchfield Township’s history

What is on the National Register in Litchfield Township?

One place: the Ness Lutheran Church and Cemetery (listed 2025).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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). How TownRatings grades history →

From the Library of Congress (18), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.