Founding year: the first Hillsboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Hillsboro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hillsboro is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hillsboro’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Hillsboro’s 7.4 sits above most of its state (70% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 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 Hillsboro’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Hillsboro yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Hillsboro is a city in Vernon County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,397 at the 2020 Census. The city is located within the Town of Hillsboro.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,417 in 2010, 1,397 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hillsboro in 1884
Passages that mention Hillsboro, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Vernon county, Wisconsin ..1884 · page 231Read the page →
Read the text
In 1855-6 I was assessor and collector of taxes tor the town of Viroqua, with the exception of the new town of Hillsboro, which embraced the two townships east of the meridian line. The town of Viroqua embraced all the territory of the northeastern part of the county, including the present town of Christiana. In the winter when I was collecting
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
Hillsboro, 1855 to 1931
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hillsboro. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1927Hillsboro sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hillsboro.
Every building
Hillsboro, building by building, 1904–1914
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.
Immanuel Missionary ChurchchurchJoshua Sanford FieldairportSaint Joseph Hospitalhospital
1cemetery inside Hillsboro
Mount Vernon
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Hillsboro’s history
What year was Hillsboro founded?
The Hillsboro post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hillsboro rank for history?
Hillsboro is more historic than 65% 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.
What is on the National Register in Hillsboro?
One place: the Hillsboro Condensed Milk Company (listed 2021).
How old are the homes in Hillsboro?
25% of Hillsboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 (13), the National Register of Historic Places (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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