On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Stapleton is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #170 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Stapleton’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 Stapleton’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 two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share (±1.5 points) is firm at this size.
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 Stapleton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first post office in the town of Canby, as Stapleton was then known, was established in 1895. Later, the Hamm brothers of Chicago, IL convinced the Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&N) to build a subsidiary line between Bay Minette and Foley. By 1905 this spur called the Bay Minette & Fort Morgan Railroad had penetrated the thirty-seven miles of dense Baldwin County pine forests with the town of Canby lying along the route. Shortly afterwards the town's name was changed to honor W. D. Stapleton, the man who was instrumental in getting a railroad depot for their town. The railroad was important to the local economy and early on the trains passed through Stapleton several times a day as they made their way to the southern end of the county and back. Highway traffic also picked up as of 1936 when the only paved road in Baldwin County, other than a small strip in Bay Minette going …
Stapleton is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #170 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.
How old are the homes in Stapleton?
0.0% of Stapleton’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 2005.
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.
