On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bon Secour is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #89 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bon Secour’s overall grade.
Alabama towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Alabama town has 2.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bon Secour’s 14.3 sits above most of its state (69% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.1 points).
Founding year: our sources. Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Bon Secour’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bon Secour was originally founded by French settlers as a fishing village in the 1700s. Namedsafe harbor in French by Jacques Cook, a French Canadian from Montreal, a member of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville's colonizing expedition of 1699. He was a participant in the founding of Mobile in 1702.
The location of Bon Secour on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico makes it especially vulnerable to hurricanes:
In September 1979, Bon Secour received the full brunt of Category 3 Hurricane Frederic, which leveled most of the beachfront of the town.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Questions about Bon Secour’s history
How does Bon Secour rank for history?
Bon Secour is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #89 of 187 in Alabama. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Bon Secour?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Allen House (listed 1988, the first).
How old are the homes in Bon Secour?
3% of Bon Secour’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 2001.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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