BOOM TOWNS

 

 

 

THE TOWN BOOM OF THE 1830's
 

 

       The town lot boom of the 1830's was one of the most interesting episodes of the early history of central Illinois. The proprietors of a town needed to have a site surveyed and file a plat in the office of records in the county seat. The lots depicted in the plat became articles of commerce, just like shares of stock in corporation, to be traded actively in the real estate market. Abraham Lincoln himself signed the plat for Albany as County Surveyor of Sangamon County. The Town Lot Boom came to a sad end within a few years. The drawing shows where towns of the "Town Lot Boom" were located and when each tow was started.

 

       Middletown (1832) and Mt. Pulaski (1836) are the only ones to have survived as independent towns that still exist today. Postville (1835) survived as part of Lincoln. Bloomingdale (1836) had a few buildings for a few years. All the rest, Georgetown (1829), Richmond (1834), Rushbrook (1834), Albany (1836), Madison I (1836), Eminence (1836), New Castle (1836) and London (1839) have no physical signs of existence today (except for a few cemeteries).

 

 

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