A history of Cresco,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Cresco from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Cresco was platted in 1866, when the railroad was expanding into the area. "Cresco" is Latin for "I grow". Cresco was incorporated on June 6, 1868.
On October 20, 1980, The David Letterman Show was broadcast from Cresco, the winner of a competition to host the show.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Cresco’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewCresco, IA, 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Cresco, decade by decade
1990s
3 historic places in Cresco
3 places in Cresco are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
Where they are
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Cresco, IA (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (1) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.