Crete’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold just one old photo of Crete. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The railroad reached Crete in 1870, attracting new settlers. In 1871, two competing settlements merged to form a new town, which was named after Crete, Illinois, the former hometown of an early settler. The name was also chosen to conform to the alphabetical stops on the new Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad line traveling westward from Lincoln: Berks, Crete, Dorchester, Exeter, Fairmont, Grafton, Harvard, Inland, Junianta, Kenesaw, Lowell, Minden etc. Some towns, such as Friend and Sutton, already existed and were later incorporated into alphabetical naming pattern. A town existed every 9 miles on the railroad, as a steam engine required regular water stops. Crete was once a contender for county seat.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Start Crete’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Crete’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo1 archive item has no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewBoswell Observatory, Doane College: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Crete, decade by decade
2000
unknown1 item
8 historic places in Crete
Crete has 8 listings on the National Register, and they protect 114 historic buildings, because Crete Downtown Historic District alone counts 53.
Where they are
When they were listed
Listed 1977Doane College Historic Buildings
Listed 1977Johnston-Muff House
Listed 1977Jesse C. Bickle House
Listed 1979Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church
Listed 1980Frank J. Rademacher House
Listed 1983College Hill Historic District
Listed 2003Telocvicna Jednota "T.J." Sokol HallListed 2016Crete Downtown Historic DistrictThen & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Boswell Observatory, Doane College and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (2) and the Library of Congress (1). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.