Founding year: the first Graton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Graton’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Graton is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Graton’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 Graton’s 16.6 sits above most of its state (94% of California towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±11.3 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 Graton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Graton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Graton is an unincorporated town and census-designated place (CDP) in west Sonoma County, California, United States. The population was 1,683 at the 2020 census. Graton's ZIP code is 95444. The town also has a culinary reputation attributed to two restaurants in the area. The town of Graton is roughly 20 miles (32 km) from the California coastline. Graton's agriculture was historically concentrated on apple farming, but like most of rural Sonoma County it now focuses on wine production.
Its first post office opened in 1906. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,707 in 2010, 1,683 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Graton in 1911
Passages that mention Graton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Sonoma County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time1911 · page 382Read the page →
Read the text
vineyards in Sonoma count\. Aside from what his own vineyard produces he buys about five hundred tons of grapes a year for his Occidental winery. In 1905 he branched out still further by the erection of the Green Valley winery at Graton, on the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Electric Railroad, which has since been incorporated as the West Coast Wine Company, of which he is president. In this plant is manufactured wine from twelve hundred tons of grajies annually, and at times he has on hand over five hundred thousand gallons of wine. In addition to the holdings already mentioned Mr. Orr also owns an eighty-acre tract of
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
Graton, 1906 to 1945
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.
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.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Graton’s history
What year was Graton founded?
The Graton post office opened in 1906, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Graton rank for history?
Graton is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. 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 Graton?
One place: the Hicks House (listed 1987).
How old are the homes in Graton?
17% of Graton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.3 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 (4), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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