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B−History
History · Longmont

Longmont dates to 1871, and 13 of its places are on the National Register

More historic than 54% of U.S. towns · #34 of 159 in Colorado. What drives it

Most of Longmont was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. 13 places in town are on the National Register, among them four historic districts with 260 buildings between them. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1880.

1871founded
13on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
10old photos & papers
18famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Longmont’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Longmont began

When was Longmont founded?

1871

Longmont dates its founding to 1871 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1880.

First census: 773 in 18802020 census: 98,885155 years

How historic is Longmont?

B−

More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1862.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Longmont’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Longmont is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #34 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 Longmont’s overall grade.
Founding era1871, from Wikidata: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19404.8% of homes (±0.7) · typical CO town 2.5% · U.S. 8.4%CNational Register13 listings, 277 historic buildings, 27.9 per 10,000 residents · typical CO town 1.1 · U.S. 2.4A
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 54%
NewerOlder
Colorado towns of 2,500+ (159)Ahead of 79%

Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Longmont ranks #229 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 Longmont’s 27.9 sits above most of its state (82% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 277 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% 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 (±0.7 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1871.

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 Longmont’s past

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

A historic districtThe West Side Historic District takes in 117 historic buildings.Mapped building by building6 fire insurance maps, 1890 to 1918, drew every building in Longmont.Landmarks on the Register13 places on the National Register.On the map since 19044 editions of the USGS map, 1904 to 1971. Watch Longmont change.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

13 listings protect 277 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
13
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
277
each building in a district counts
first listed
1975
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1881
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1881Empson CanneryLongmont Fire Department, built 1907T. M. Callahan House, built 1892East Side Historic DistrictWest Side Historic DistrictDickens Opera HouseLongmont CollegeLongmont Carnegie Library, built 1912Hoverhome and Hover Farmstead, built 1902Downtown Longmont Historic DistrictSandstone RanchTower of Compassion
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Queen Anne3
Italianate2
Tudor Revival2
20th Century Commercial Style1
Colonial Revival1
Edwardian1
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1881Building
Empson CanneryBuilding
Longmont Fire Department20th Century Commercial Style · Built 1907
T. M. Callahan HouseQueen Anne · Built 1892
East Side Historic DistrictItalianate
West Side Historic DistrictItalianate
Dickens Opera HouseNineteenth Century Commercial Style
Longmont CollegeBuilding
All 13 listings
Longmont Carnegie LibraryBuilding · listed 1992Hoverhome and Hover FarmsteadDistrict · listed 1999Downtown Longmont Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 2017Sandstone RanchBuilding · listed 1984Tower of CompassionBuilding · listed 2025

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Every building

Longmont, building by building, 1890–1918

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.

Longmont fire insurance map, 1890, sheet 11890Sheet 1 of 4
Edition
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Longmont came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Longmont.

Read it all →

Indigenous peoples originally inhabited the region, with the Clovis culture representing the earliest documented population to establish settlement in this territory.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Longmont, 1862 to 1999

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1862Post officeThe Burlington post office opens
  3. 1871
    FoundingLongmont is established
  4. 1873Post officeThe Burlington post office closes
  5. 1873Post officeThe Longmont post office opens
  6. 1892BuiltT. M. Callahan House is built
  7. 20th century
  8. 1900In the archiveColorado--Longmont--Street scene, early model automobiles
  9. 1902BuiltHoverhome and Hover Farmstead is built
  10. 1904On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  11. 1907BuiltLongmont Fire Department is built
  12. 1912BuiltLongmont Carnegie Library is built
  13. 1917In the archiveThrough the leaves, 1917
  14. 1931Born hereVance D. Brand is born here
  15. 1940In the archiveColorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]
  16. 1978Born hereKristen Schaal is born here
  17. 1992Born hereJack Reynor is born here
  18. 1998Born hereJustinian Jessup is born here
  19. 1999In the archive[Agriculture 2] 412-DSP-2-Agriculture 327
By decade

Longmont, decade by decade

4 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s5 items
Colorado--Longmont--Street scene, early model automobiles1900Colorado--Longmont--Street scene, early model automob…Through the leaves, 19171917Through the leaves, 1917Through the leaves, 19171917Through the leaves, 1917Through the leaves, 19171917Through the leaves, 1917Through the leaves, 19171917Through the leaves, 1917
1940s3 items
Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]1940Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]1940Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]1940Colorado [Adams County - Las Animas County (part)]
1950s–1980snothing 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
1990s2 items
[Agriculture 2] 412-DSP-2-Agriculture 3271999[Agriculture 2] 412-DSP-2-Agriculture 327[Agriculture 2] 412-DSP-2-Agriculture 3401999[Agriculture 2] 412-DSP-2-Agriculture 340
Today5 recent
PurePrairieLeague2010PurePrairieLeagueWest Side Historic District2009West Side Historic DistrictLongmont, CO 80503, USA2008Longmont, CO 80503, USANight - panoramio - Vadim Manuylov2006Night - panoramio - Vadim ManuylovCOMap-doton-Longmont2005COMap-doton-Longmont
On the map

Longmont on the map, 1904 to 1971

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

Longmont on the 1904 USGS mapLongmont on the 1950 USGS mapLongmont on the 1968 USGS mapLongmont on the 1971 USGS map1904Niwot sheet · 1:62,500

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

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.

Colorado--Longmont--Street scene, early model automobiles
Retake this viewColorado--Longmont--Street scene, early model automobiles, 1900

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Longmont, census by census

020,00040,00060,00080,000100,0001880190019201940196019802000202098,885

Grew from 773 people in 1880 to 98,885 in 2020, more than tenfold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Famous people

18 famous people were born in Longmont

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Kristen SchaalAmerican actress · b. 1978
Vance D. BrandTest pilot and NASA astronaut · b. 1931
Jack ReynorIrish actor · b. 1992
J
Justinian JessupAmerican basketball player · b. 1998
Robert GunningAmerican mathematician · b. 1931
David PauleyAmerican professional baseball player · b. 1983
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Longmont’s post office has been open since 1873. Another post office, Burlington, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Burlington
1862–1873
Longmont
1873–today
18601940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
DominionMarnett
Gone or out of use
Button R Dam MinemineLongmont Plant PitmineMarnette PitmineMountain Aggregates PitminePhil G Skrbina PitmineSouth Flat Pitmine
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Longmont
BurlingtonMountain View

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Longmont’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
4 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewColorado--Longmont--Street scene, early…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

FirestoneIts storyD−

Questions about Longmont’s history

What year was Longmont founded?

In 1871, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Longmont’s post office opened in 1862, and the census of 1880 counted 773 people here.

How does Longmont rank for history?

Longmont is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #34 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 Longmont?

13 listings: 9 buildings, among them the St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 1881 (listed 1975, the first), and 4 historic districts with 260 contributing buildings. 277 historic buildings in all.

How old are the homes in Longmont?

5% of Longmont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1991.

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 (14), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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.