The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Ira Woods and his family settled in Avon in 1835. Avon was named "Woodsville" from 1837 to 1843. In 1843, the town became big enough to ask for a post office. The name was then changed to "Woodstock". On April 4, 1852, the United States Postmaster General gave the town the name of "Avon" to avoid confusion with another community in McHenry County, IL. Avon was once a thriving town, due in part to the railroad industry, by serving as a method of transporting cattle to the slaughterhouses in Chicago and also as a stop between Chicago and Quincy.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowStart Avon’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avon’s history is told.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewIllinois Avon quadrangle, 1915: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Avon
See all 4 →
Avon, decade by decade
1990s
unknown1 item
Nothing in Avon is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Avon has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Babylon Bend Bridge in Lee, 7 miles away.
Avon and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Illinois Avon quadrangle (1915) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (3). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.