Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns · #94 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
Most of Calera was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2006. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 25 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1880.
The Calera post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1887. Three smaller post offices, Waxahatchie (1836), Shelby Springs (1837) and Lime Station (1854), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Calera is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #94 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Calera’s 14.1 sits above most of its state (69% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 25 historic buildings outnumber those of 81% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). 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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Calera’s post office has been open since 1869. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1889Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Calera.
Calera was incorporated in 1887, and named after the Spanish word for "quarry" for all of the limestone deposits located in the area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveAlabama - Claera through Florence
Born hereHut Stricklin is born here
In the archiveEXTERIOR VIEW, LOOKING NORTH, OF THE 'OLD PIT' WITH EXTRACTION OF LIMESTONE IN PROCESS. A…2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Calera. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Calera.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Calera’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 234 people in 1880 to 16,494 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Calera’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Calera’s history is told.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Calera post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1887.
Calera is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #94 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.
One place: the Calera Downtown Historic District (listed 2006).
2% of Calera’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.5 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 2006.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (12), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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