Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 28% of U.S. towns · #358 of 847 in California. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Jacob Zentgraf House. Most of El Dorado Hills was built recently: 0.2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2002. Below: maps from 1941 on and the census since 1980.
More historic than 28% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, El Dorado Hills is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #358 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 El Dorado Hills’ 0.4 sits above most of its state (69% of California towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Three other post offices 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how El Dorado Hills’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of El Dorado Hills.
During the California Gold Rush, gold was washed down the South Fork of the American River, into areas that became El Dorado Hills and Folsom, but farming and ranching supplanted mining or panning for gold. Portions of two Pony Express routes in this area from 1860 to 1861 remain as modern El Dorado Hills roads.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereSeyi Ajirotutu is born here
Born hereIan Book is born here
2012El Dorodo Hill, CA 6073
2012El Dorodo Hill, CA 6072
2012El Dorado Hills 987
2012El Dorado Hills 983
2012El Dorado Hills 982
2012EDH 6070
2012EDH 6069
2012EDH 6066
2012EDH 3390
2011El Dorado Hills CDP and region
2009Dry and empty, just like the central valley of Califo…
2002SIDE VIEW OF ROCK FENCE LINE AND ASSOCIATED THREE-STR…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of El Dorado Hills. 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 El Dorado Hills.
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.
Grew from 3,453 people in 1980 to 50,547 in 2020, more than tenfold.
5 censuses, 1980–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on El Dorado Hills’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
El Dorado Hills is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #358 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.
One place: the Jacob Zentgraf House (listed 2025).
0.2% of El Dorado Hills’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 2002.
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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
