Olin was surveyed and platted from 1840 to 1842 and called the City of Rome by Norman B. Seeley.

The business district developed along Jackson Street in the original town plat.

The town thrived in Iowa's Golden Age of Agriculture around the turn of the 20th-century, but it has been static ever since.

The east side of the street was developed in a laissez-faire fashion where individuals constructed buildings according to their needs and desires.

This article about a property in Jones County, Iowa on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.