Sparta’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 5 old photos of Sparta. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusSparta is a city in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. The population was 4,095 at the 2020 census. It has a total area of 11.443 square miles (29.64 km2), of which 11.17 square miles (28.93 km2) (or 97.61%) is land and 0.273 square miles (0.71 km2) (or 2.39%) is water. The city was the principal filming location for the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 4,302 to 4,095 (-5%). Half of its homes were built before 1970.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sparta yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Start Sparta’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sparta’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo5 archive items have no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewHistoric American Buildings Surve…: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Sparta, decade by decade
2000
unknown5 items
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Historic American Buildings Survey Lester Jones, Photographer August 15, 1940. NORTH ELEVATION - Amos Glen House, Spart… and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (2) and the National Register (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.