Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to La Salle

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
LaSalle, ColoradoPhoto: Jeffrey Beall · CC BY 3.0
CHistory
History · La Salle

La Salle’s post office opened in 1886, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1908 on, and the census since 1920.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
From La Salle’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How La Salle began

When was La Salle founded?

1886

The La Salle post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 460 in 19202020 census: 2,359140 years

How historic is La Salle?

C

More historic than 28% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first La Salle post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade

What drives La Salle’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, La Salle is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of La Salle’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 28%
NewerOlder

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 La Salle’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Colorado 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 (±5.2 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 La Salle’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start La Salle’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how La Salle’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Every building

La Salle, building by building, 1908–1921

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.

La Salle fire insurance map, 1908, sheet 11908Sheet 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.

The story so far

La Salle, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of La Salle yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

The Town of LaSalle (incorporated in 1910 as the Town of La Salle) is a Statutory Town in Weld County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 2,359 at the 2020 United States census. A post office called La Salle has been in operation since 1886. The community was named by railroad officials after LaSalle Street in Chicago.

Its first post office opened in 1886. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,955 to 2,359 (+21%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

La Salle, 1886 to 1951

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1886Post officeThe La Salle post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1940In the archiveUnion Pacific 2-8-0 steam locomotive 1930
  5. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

La Salle, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1950s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
On the map

La Salle on the map, 1951 to 1969

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of La Salle. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

La Salle on the 1951 USGS mapLa Salle on the 1969 USGS map1951La Salle sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of La Salle.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Union Pacific 2-8-0 steam locomotive 1930
Retake this viewUnion Pacific 2-8-0 steam locomotive 1930, 1940s

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on La Salle’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

La Salle, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5001920194019601980200020202,359

Grew from 460 people in 1920 to 2,359 in 2020, 5 times over.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on La Salle’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to La Salle

Nobody well known was born in La Salle itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →

Questions about La Salle’s history

What year was La Salle founded?

The La Salle post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does La Salle rank for history?

La Salle is more historic than 28% 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.

How old are the homes in La Salle?

10% of La Salle’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1974.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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), 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.