Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns · #288 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Hayward was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. Its Register listing is the Green Shutter Hotel. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1870.
Hayward first appears in the census in 1870. Two smaller post offices, Haywood (1860) and Haywards (1880), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hayward is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #288 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Hayward ranks #287 on History.
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 Hayward’s 0.1 sits near the middle of its state (63% of California towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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.
Hayward’s post office has been open since 1911. Two 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hayward. 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 Hayward.
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.
1888Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hayward.
Human habitation of the greater East Bay, including Hayward, dates from at least 4000 BC. The most recent pre-European inhabitants of the Hayward area were the Native American Ohlone people.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Hayward, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Haywards is located on the San Lorenzo Rancho, whose proprietor, Guillermo Castro, had his residence within the town limits, and who, in 1854, had a town site surveyed and platted there. It takes its name, however, from its first American settler, William Hayward. That most courteous and favorite pioneer informed us that after leaving the Polo-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
1865. — Besides a general activity in railroad building, there was notJiing of great "polificabsignificarice'b'ccurred in Alameda. County, although, the assassination of President Lincoln occupied much attention. The first item of note is the allowance, on February 11, 1865, of fifty dollars a month to the Hayward Guard for the purpose of providing an armory; while, August 21st, the like sum for the same object was granted to the Brooklyn Guard, another military organization. In this month the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment obtained by Contra Costa County against Alameda County, for the old Oakland (Twelfth Street) Bridge indebtedness, the
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.
In the archiveHotel near Hayward's, 15 miles from San Francisco.Alternate Title: California, 1309
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereArt Larsen is born here
In the archiveRural Rehabilitation Administration client. Hayward, California
Born hereClaudia Kolb is born here
In the archiveHU-16 129th ACG California ANG 1960s
In the archiveComputer Shack Ad Jan 1977
In the archiveAlex Vraciu being interviewed5 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hayward’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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 504 people in 1870 to 162,954 in 2020, more than tenfold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hayward’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Hayward post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1876.
Hayward is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #288 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 Green Shutter Hotel (listed 2004).
4% of Hayward’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (3), 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), 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.
c. 1870
c. 1870
c. 1870
1936
1936
1977
2004
