Felton’s post office opened in 1870, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 65% of U.S. towns · #78 of 847 in California. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Felton Covered Bridge and the Felton Presbyterian Church. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Felton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Felton’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Felton is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #78 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Felton’s overall grade.
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 Felton’s 4.9 sits above most of its state (87% of California towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 points). 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 Felton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Felton is part of the traditional territory of the Sayant, an Awaswas-speaking group considered part of the Ohlone people. Most of the Sayant were sent to Mission Santa Cruz and the area of the San Lorenzo Valley remained unpopulated except for occasional travelers. In 1833, Rancho Zayante was established at the confluence of the San Lorenzo River and Zayante Creek and granted to Joaquín Buelna. The rancho subsequently passed to Francisco Moss in 1839, then Joseph L. Majors on April 22, 1841. Majors acquired it on behalf of Isaac Graham, who operated a lumber mill on the property.
Passages that mention Felton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Santa Cruz County, California1892 · page 161Read the page →
Read the text
On the highway between the Big Trees and Boulder Creek — a most romantic drive, by the way — is the pretty town of Felton. It is a mile from the station of the same name, boasts of a comfortable, well-kept hotel, and of the general neatness of its streets and dwellings. In the hills near at hand are the H. T. Holmes Co. and IXL Co.'s limekilns, that are interesting places to visit. From the town a good road leads up onto the level plateaus of Ben Lomond and so over to the coast. These three pretty towns are strung along on the San Lorenzo River, and to visit them all is a delightful summer day's jaunt. 3
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.
Timeline
Felton, 1870 to 1990
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Felton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1943Ben Lomond sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Felton.
Every building
Felton, building by building, 1895–1908
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1895Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewSouth Pacific Coast RR Schedule 1887, 1887
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Felton’s page.
The Felton post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Felton rank for history?
Felton is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #78 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.
What is on the National Register in Felton?
Two places: the Felton Covered Bridge (listed 1973) and the Felton Presbyterian Church (1978).
How old are the homes in Felton?
18% of Felton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1894
2016
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