4 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 11 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1890.
Founding year: the first Holyoke post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Holyoke’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Holyoke is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Holyoke’s overall grade.
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 Holyoke’s 54.6 sits above most of its state (89% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 13 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.4 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 Holyoke’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1890 and 1900, then grew 5-fold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Holyoke’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Holyoke, building by building, 1893–1921
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 county seat of Phillips County, Colorado (1887, 3,746 feet (1.14 km)) was named by the general superintendent of the Burlington Railroad for his son-in-law, Edward A. Holyoke. This division point on Frenchman Creek was laid out on a grid. Grain elevators are the skyscrapers in Holyoke, which is still focused on its main street, Interocean Avenue (U.S. 385). The Burge Hotel (1912), 230 North Interocean Avenue, has a huge stone fireplace and tablet honoring the “Knights of the Grip,” the traveling salesmen who spiced small-town life. A main street mansion converted to a nursing home has a large sign: “Love is Ageless. Visit Us.”
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 Holyoke post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Holyoke rank for history?
Holyoke is more historic than 76% 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 Holyoke?
4 listings: 2 buildings and 2 historic districts, the W. E. Heginbotham House and the Millage Farm Rural Historic District, with 11 contributing buildings. 13 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Holyoke?
24% of Holyoke’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (6), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
1880
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