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Marissa, Illinois

14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1912 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Marissa Township. It lies in ZIP code area 62257. The Survey maps it on the New Athens East quadrangle. 1,833 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 453 feet above sea level.

Marissa within St. Clair County

On record in Marissa

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Marissa fell from 1,979 to 1,833 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20101,979
20201,833-146 (-7%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 14 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

In the county-history sources

763 words on this township

Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928 names this settlement in its chapter on Marissa Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

The original town of Marissa was laid out by James Stewart in December, 1867. It soon became a village with a few dwellings, a general store, a blacksmith shop, and a mill which could turn out a hundred barrels of flour a day. In 1870 when the railroad, known as the "Cairo Short Line" ran through, it left the village a little to one side. Of course since the railroad would not come to the town, the town had to go to the railroad. Accordingly a site was chosen for a station and a new town was laid out by M. E. and J. C. Hamilton.

Passage source: Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928.

The old and the new towns were not too far apart to grow together, and now they are connected by a continuous street and together have a population probably about two thousand. The name was selected by James Wilson, the first postmaster, who showed his love for classic lore by choosing a name preserved only in Latin records. It was the name of a city destroyed, and afterwards rebuilt, by Gabinius, and our St. Clair County city is now believed to be the only place in the world by that name. One of the founders, John Hamilton, came to this county from South Carolina in 1834. M. E. Hamilton erected the first business house; the mill was built and operated for many years by A. J. Meek; and the Wyllie brothers ran a store. The town was not incorporated until 1882 but it has easily outgrown some of its older neighbors. It has the usual type of business houses, stores, banks, garages, and electric light plant, and the coal mining interests are a strong rival to the agricultural in that community. The public school employs twelve teachers, and the excellent Township high school has eight. There are churches of sev- eral denominations. The leading one is the United Presbyterian. There are also Methodists, Baptists, and Evangehcals. Marissa had the distinction of being a prohibition town long before the days of the eighteenth amendment.

Passage source: Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Marissa Township.

Storms near this place

43 since 1996

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Marissa in 43 storm reports between 1996 and 2026: 24 thunderstorm wind, 17 hail, 1 tornado, 1 flash flood. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 1996Thunderstorm WindMarissa$5,000no account filed
March 2026Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-A report from social media showed a destroyed carport caused by thunderstorm winds.
September 2023Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Broadcast media reported that trees and power lines were knocked down in and around Marissa, with the most damage occurring on the southeast side of town. No information was given on the details of the trees.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down several medium to large trees as well as several power lines around town. A few shingles were blown off of a couple of homes.
April 2012HailMarissa-Hail was covering the ground on the southside of Marissa.
July 2012HailMarissa-Large hail fell on the south side of Marissa. The large hail cracked a windshield on one vehicle.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew part of the metal roof off of a shed. Also, several large trees, numerous tree limbs and power lines were blown down.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down a large tree onto power lines, knocking the power lines down.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down several large trees and power lines.
June 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down a tree onto a house causing moderate damage.
August 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down several tree limbs as well as one tree. The tree pulled down some power lines in downtown Marissa.
April 2011Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down a few trees and power lines.
October 2010Thunderstorm WindOld Marissa-Thunderstorm winds blew over several large trees and knocked down numerous tree limbs.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindMarissa-Thunderstorm winds blew down a 90 foot tree on the north side of Marissa. Also, numerous large tree limbs were blown down around town.
June 2009Flash FloodMarissa-Up to three inches of rain fell in a short amount of time causing flash flooding. Numerous roads had water over them including Illinois Route 4 at School View Drive and on Lickenbrock School Road a mile north of Darmstadt Road.
February 2006Thunderstorm WindMarissa-Storm spotters reported power lines down at several locations in town.
May 2006HailMarissa-Hail was covering the ground.
July 2004Thunderstorm WindMarissa-The local newspaper reported several large tree limbs and moderate size trees down from thunderstorm winds.
August 2004Thunderstorm WindMarissa-Local law enforcement reported trees, power lines down and a machine shed damaged.
April 2002HailMarissa-Storm spotters reported 3/4 inch hail.
April 2002HailMarissa-Storm spotters reported 3/4 inch hail.
April 1998Tornado (F0)Marissa-The Marissa Fire Chief reported a small tornado near the fire station. Damage consisted of a few downed trees, the bleachers at a baseball field were destroyed, and a trash dumpster was blown into the side of a building breaking some bricks.
April 1998HailMarissa-Golfball size hail fell for several minutes in Marissa.
June 1997Thunderstorm WindMarissa-Wind gusts downed trees and power lines.
June 2011HailOld Marissa-no account filed
May 2010HailOld Marissa-no account filed
April 2009HailOld Marissa-no account filed
March 2009HailMarissa-no account filed
January 2008HailMarissa-no account filed
June 2008HailMarissa-no account filed
March 2006HailMarissa-no account filed
May 2006Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
May 2006HailMarissa-no account filed
June 2005Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
July 2004Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
July 2004HailMarissa-no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
July 2000Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
June 1998Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
May 1996HailMarissa-no account filed
July 1996Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
August 1996Thunderstorm WindMarissa-no account filed
March 1996HailMarissa-no account filed

Every storm recorded in St. Clair County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Old Marissa0.6 miles14
Whiteoak2.0 miles12
Lenzburg4.4 miles14
Darmstadt5.0 miles11
Saint Libory8.1 miles11
New Athens8.5 miles14
Fayetteville9.1 miles14
Lementon11.8 miles14

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on MarissaAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q2668778The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 426421. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.