The Coats Bend post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Sonoma (1893), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,318148 years
How historic is Coats Bend?
D
More historic than 11% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Coats Bend post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Coats Bend’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Coats Bend is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Coats Bend’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 Coats Bend’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (26% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to C−. The pre-1940 share (±2.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Coats Bend’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Coats Bend yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Coats Bend is a census-designated place in Etowah County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, Coats Bend had a population of 1,318. A post office was established in 1878 and was in operation until 1903.
Its first post office opened in 1878. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,394 to 1,318 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Coats Bend, 1878 to 1967
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Coats Bend post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Coats Bend rank for history?
Coats Bend is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Coats Bend?
0.0% of Coats Bend’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1995.
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 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.
