Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 12% of U.S. towns · #86 of 140 in Arizona. What drives it
Most of Sun City was built recently: 0.2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. Its Register listing is the Sun City DEVCO Model No.1. Below: maps from 1957 on and the census since 1970.
The Sun City post office opened in 1962, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Marinette (1912), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 12% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sun City is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #86 of 140 in Arizona. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few Arizona towns list much on the Register (a typical Arizona town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Sun City’s 0.3 sits near the middle of its state (60% of Arizona towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sun City’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sun City.
In June 1959, James G. Boswell II, then owner of the J.G. Boswell Company, sold the company’s Marinette and Santa Fe ranches to Del E. Webb Development Co for more than $20 million. This land, totaling 20,000 acres, would become the company’s first retirement community, Sun City.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sun City. 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 Sun City.
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.
Between 13,670 and 40,505 people in every census since 1970.
6 censuses, 1970–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sun City’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Sun City itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Sun City’s post office has been open since 1962. Another post office, Marinette, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Sun City post office opened in 1962, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sun City is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #86 of 140 in Arizona. 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 Sun City DEVCO Model No.1 (listed 2015).
0.2% of Sun City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.4% for an Arizona town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
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