More historic than 12% of U.S. towns · #645 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Planada was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1960.
The Planada post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Geneva (1896), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,704 in 19602020 census: 4,164115 years
How historic is Planada?
D
More historic than 12% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Planada post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Planada’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Planada is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #645 of 847 in California. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Planada’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 Planada’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 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 Planada’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Planada was originally named Whitton by railroad officials. The area's first white settlers were a group of Swiss dairy farmers, who renamed the settlement Geneva. The Geneva post office opened in 1896, closed in 1897, then reopened in 1898. In 1911, it held a contest to select a new name for the town, and Planada was the winning entry. The San Francisco and San Joaquin Valley Railroad (built in the late 1890s) had a "Geneva" station which became the "Planada" station.
Since many of Planada's residents - as many as 41 percent - are undocumented, they were ineligible for most federal aid. In July, the state legislature passed a bill to provide assistance to Planada residents.
Passages that mention Planada, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Merced County, California1925 · page 372Read the page →
Read the text
"The Map of the Town of Geneva" (now Whitton), recorded November 25, 1896, will probably puzzle comparatively late comers to the county as much as the town of Dover. Both of these were early names of Planada. The owner who dedicated the streets to the public was James Bean, and the certificate is dated at San Jose on November 20, 1896. There is a later map of the Town of Planada, surveyed by E. D. Severance, and recorded on January 30, 1911.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Merced County, California1925 · page 310Read the page →
Read the text
Grub Gulch with their own team; and in the summer of 1872, after their mill had burned up and they had the team on their hands with nothing in their regular line to do, he came over to the new town of Merced and hauled wheat from the region about Planada and Tuttle to the new warehouse at Merced, with a Chinaman to help him load the sacks. He also went out and bought wheat along down the Merced, and some of the first wheat that was raised on the site of the town of Merced, and hauled some of it to the mill himself.
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
Planada, 1896 to 1951
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
1914Sheet 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.
People over time
Planada, census by census
Between 1,704 and 4,584 people in every census since 1960.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Planada’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices
Planada’s post office has been open since 1911. Another post office, Geneva, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Geneva
1896–1911
Planada
1911–today
18901960today
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Planada’s history
What year was Planada founded?
The Planada post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Planada rank for history?
Planada is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #645 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.
How old are the homes in Planada?
5% of Planada’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1983.
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 (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.
2001