Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 10% of U.S. towns · #671 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Denair was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Below: maps from 1916 on and the census since 1970.
Denair dates its founding to 1904 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1970.
More historic than 10% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Denair is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns, #671 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Denair’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Denair’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Denair. 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 Denair.
From Wikipedia’s history of Denair.
Denair was established in 1904, along the Santa Fe Railroad (once the Valley Division) tracks.
The town was renamed from Elmwood Colony to Denair in honor of a local landowner, John Denair.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Denair, cut from the printed page as they were published.
DENAIR Denair, formerly known as the Elmwood Colony, was named after John Denair, who laid out the townsite in 1907. The town is three miles from Turlock, and the Santa Fe Railroad planned to erect a roundhouse, machine shops and other buildings on the Elmwood colony. Denair learned their plan and bought up the land. His price to the Santa Fe for land was so high that they refused to purchase, so goes the story, and they located at Riverbank. As the land was within the Turlock Irrigation District, farmers began purchasing small tracts of land for the raising of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Following his marriage, Mr. Neill was railroad agent, and later merchant, in Butlerville and Westfield, Ind. ; and in 1908 he came west to California and selected Denair as the place of greatest appeal. He took up ranching, buying twenty acres west of Denair which he sold, and then bought another tract of twenty acres. He ioined the Denair local of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau at its inception in 1915, and is (1921) local chairman of the Bureau at Denair. Mr. Neill has become more and more interested in and identified with the development of this section of Stanislaus County, and it is not surprising that whenever any movement of importance affecting
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 SurveyGrew from 1,128 people in 1970 to 4,865 in 2020, 4 times over.
6 censuses, 1970–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Denair’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Denair itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Denair’s post office has been open since 1907. Another post office, Elmdale, 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).
In 1904, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Denair’s post office opened in 1898, and the census of 1970 counted 1,128 people here.
Denair is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns, #671 of 847 in California. 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.
3% of Denair’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.9 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 (2), Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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