A history of Highland,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Highland from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Highland was settled in the early 19th century by Swiss-German settlers. The town was founded in 1837 and celebrated its 175th Jubilee in 2012. It was first named Helvetia (pronounced "hellveesha") in accordance with the heritage of the town's Swiss-German founding members. The town voted to change its name to the English version, "Highland", in the early 20th century, as well as stopping production of its German language newspaper, in part to avoid negativity toward those of Germanic heritage at the advent of the First World War. Around the same time, a small town in northern Illinois also started calling itself Highland. Eventually, the town in northern Illinois became Highland Park.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Highland’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 viewHighland, Ill, 1894: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Highland
See all 14 →
Highland, decade by decade
1990s
Nothing in Highland is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Highland has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Marine Chapter House in Marine, 4.9 miles away.
Highland 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 Highland, Ill (1894) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (5) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.