Founding year: the first Rehoboth Beach post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rehoboth Beach’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rehoboth Beach is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rehoboth Beach’s overall grade.
Delaware towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Delaware town has 29.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Rehoboth Beach’s 65.7 sits above most of its state (66% of Delaware towns have fewer) while its 9 historic buildings outnumber those of 75% 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 (±3.2 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 →
By the time the first Europeans arrived in the area in the 17th century, the coastline was at its present location and several Native American Indian tribes lived in the area, including the Lenape, the Sikkonese, the Assateagues, and the Nanticoke. The site was the location of what may have been the most important Native American fishing village on the Middle Atlantic coast, including at Wilgus Site, a prehistoric shell midden archeological location, which is now inundated.
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 Rehoboth Beach post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rehoboth Beach rank for history?
Rehoboth Beach is more historic than 65% 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 Rehoboth Beach?
Two places: the All Saints' Episcopal Church (listed 1991) and the Dodd Homestead (1982).
How old are the homes in Rehoboth Beach?
20% of Rehoboth Beach’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Delaware town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1907
1907