Fort Collins dates to 1864, and 28 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns · #32 of 159 in Colorado. What drives it
Most of Fort Collins was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. 28 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 589 buildings between them. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1865.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Fort Collins’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fort Collins is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #32 of 159 in Colorado. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fort Collins’ overall grade.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Fort Collins ranks #226 on History.
Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fort Collins’ 36.2 sits above most of its state (84% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 617 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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 (±0.4 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1864.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Fort Collins’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Fort Collins, building by building, 1886–1917
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 Northern Arapaho were centered in the Cache la Poudre River Valley near present-day Fort Collins. Friday, who attended school in St. Louis, Missouri in his youth, was a leader of the band of Arapahos as well as an interpreter, negotiator, and peacemaker. He made friends of white settlers who moved into the area, but was pushed out of Colorado in the 1860s.
At the session of the board held February 3rd, 1873, a petition was presented by the taxpayers of Fort Collins, asking that said town be incorporated. The commissioners being satisfied that two-thirds of the tax payers in said town had signed the petition, ordered that the town of Fort Collins be incorporated and appointed B. T. Whedbee, G. G.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
On June 28th the Board of Trustees of the town of Fort Collins passed an ordinance granting the Colorado Central Railroad company a right of way through the town along Mason street and certain other privileges, such as depot grounds, and lands for yards. The grading and bridging of the road, ready for the ties and rails was completed between Longmont and Hazard, five miles west of Chey-
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
Fort Collins, 1864 to 1989
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.
Adams Transit PitmineBarker PitmineCowan PitmineFort Collins Downtown AirportairportFort Collins PitmineFort Collins QuarrymineFossil Creek SchoolschoolGraphite Number Five MinemineGraphite Number Four MinemineGraphite Number One MinemineGraphite Number Seven MinemineGraphite Number Six MinemineGraphite Number Three MinemineGraphite Number Two MinemineHarmony SchoolschoolHat-Field AirportairportHoly Family SchoolschoolPlummer Schoolschool
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Fort Collins
GrandviewHarmony
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Fort Collins’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
In 1864, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Fort Collins’ post office opened in 1865, and the census of 1880 counted 1,356 people here.
How does Fort Collins rank for history?
Fort Collins is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #32 of 159 in Colorado. 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 Fort Collins?
28 listings: 23 buildings, among them the Avery House (listed 1972, the first), 3 historic districts, the Old Town Fort Collins, the Laurel School Historic District and the Preston Farm, with 589 contributing buildings, and 2 structures. 617 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Fort Collins?
5% of Fort Collins’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1992.
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (28), 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.
1865
1865
c. 1876
1887
1899
1906
1906
