Redding’s post office opened in 1872, and 5 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 39% of U.S. towns · #239 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Redding was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1880.
The Redding post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1887. Another post office, Waugh (1885), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 600 in 18802020 census: 93,611154 years
How historic is Redding?
C+
More historic than 39% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Redding post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1887.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Redding’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Redding is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #239 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Redding’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 Redding’s 0.5 sits above most of its state (71% of California towns have fewer) while its 5 listings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share (±0.6 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1887 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Redding’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Redding’s post office has been open since 1872. Another post office, Waugh, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Redding
1872–today
Waugh
1885–1906
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Churn Creek Mobile Home ParkClear Creek Mobile Home ParkCountry Aire Mobile Home ParkCountry Club Mobile EstatesEnterpriseEnterprise Mobile ParkFairway Oaks Mobile Home ParkGirvanKeswick Dam Trailer ParkLos Robles EstatesMarina Travel ParkMoose-horn Mobile Home ParkMountain Shadows Mobile Home EstatesNorthgate Trailer ParkParadise View Mobile EstatesRedding Oaks Mobile Home ParkReddingwood Mobile Home ParkRedwoods Mobile Home CommunityRiverside Mobile ParkSafari Mobile Home ParkShady Acres Trailer ParkShady Hill Trailer ParkShady Oaks Mobile ParkStarlite Mobile Estates
Gone or out of use
Blue Bird Placer MinemineBlue Gravel MinemineCarlson and Sandburg MinemineClear Creek Tailings PitmineEnterprise SkyparkairportEureka Tellurium MinemineMagnolia Elementary SchoolschoolManzanita MinemineMistletoe SchoolschoolNova High SchoolschoolRedding Army Air FieldmilitarySacramento Pliocene MinemineShasta General HospitalhospitalSholes Placer Minemine
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Redding
Lawncrest Memorial ParkRedding Memorial ParkSaint JosephSaint Joseph's
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Redding’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Redding’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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.
The area is inhabited by a tribe of Native Americans called the Wintu. At their height, the Wintu had as many as 239 villages in the Shasta County area.
Although Europeans had been to California as early as 1542, when Juan Cabrillo sailed to what is now San Diego Bay, indigenous natives long remained the only inhabitants of the Northern California region.
The first European settlement in the area was established in 1844 by Pierson B. Reading, an early California pioneer who received a Rancho Buena Ventura Mexican land grant for 26,632 acres (10,778 ha) that is now covered by Redding and Cottonwood, California. At the time, it was the northernmost nonnative settlement in California.
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.
The Redding post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1887.
How does Redding rank for history?
Redding is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #239 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 Redding?
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Pine Street School (listed 1978, the first).
How old are the homes in Redding?
3% of Redding’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), 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 (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1917
1917
