Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns · #7 of 159 in Colorado. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 9 buildings. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1890.
Monte Vista dates its founding to 1884 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1890.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Monte Vista is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #7 of 159 in Colorado. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Monte Vista’s 38.6 sits above most of its state (85% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 16 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
1890Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Monte Vista’s post office has been open since 1886. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Monte Vista.
Monte Vista was laid out in 1884. The site had previously served as a watering stop for the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. Monte Vista is the Spanish translation of "mountain view."
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltCarnegie Library is built
In the archiveMonte Vista CO Presby PHS917BuiltEl Monte Hotel is built
In the archivePotato storage cellars
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1923Monte Vista CO Presby PHS9171939Potato storage cellars
1939Potato storage cellars
1939Potato storage cellar. Monte Vista, Colorado
1939Potato storage cellars. Monte Vista, Colorado
1939Inspecting washed potatoes. Monte Vista, Colorado
1939Potato pickers in town
1939Potato pickers in town
1939Farmer in potato cellar. Monte Vista, Colorado
1939Washed potatoes are inspected. Monte Vista, ColoradoThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Monte Vista.
1964Monte Vista sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Monte Vista.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Monte Vista’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 556 and 4,529 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Monte Vista’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1884, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Monte Vista’s post office opened in 1881, and the census of 1890 counted 780 people here.
Monte Vista is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #7 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.
7 listings: 6 buildings, among them the US Post Office and Federal Building-Monte Vista Main (listed 1986, the first), and 1 historic district, the Monte Vista Downtown Historic District, with 9 contributing buildings. 16 historic buildings in all.
29% of Monte Vista’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.9 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1961.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (9), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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.
