Most of Kinsey was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1900.
Founding year: the first Kinsey post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Kinsey’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kinsey is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Kinsey’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 Kinsey’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 (±1.3 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 Kinsey’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1900 and 1970, then grew more than tenfold.
9 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kinsey’s Wikipedia page.
The story so far
Kinsey, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Kinsey yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Kinsey is a town in Houston County, Alabama, United States. It was initially located and incorporated in Henry County in February 1893. In 1903, it was redrawn into newly created Houston County and was later reincorporated in August 1957. It is part of the Dothan, Alabama Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 census, Kinsey had a population of 2,203.
Its first post office opened in 1866. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,198 in 2010, 2,203 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Kinsey, 1866 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Kinsey post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Kinsey rank for history?
Kinsey is more historic than 15% 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 Kinsey?
1% of Kinsey’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1992.
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, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
