Founding year: the first Rochelle post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rochelle’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rochelle 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 Rochelle’s overall grade.
Georgia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Georgia town has 10.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Rochelle’s 1,448 sits above most of its state (99% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 180 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% 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 (±9.7 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 Rochelle’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area that would become Rochelle was settled in the early nineteenth century by migrants primarily of Scots-Irish descent moving southward from the Carolinas. The settlement appeared on early maps under the name "Vineyard" before later being referred to as "Center." Modern development began in 1887, when the Americus, Preston, and Lumpkin Railroad established an east-to-west line through Wilcox County, spurring the growth of a new town at the railroad crossing. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the community as Rochelle in 1888, naming it after La Rochelle, the port city in France. Laid out as a cross-rail community, a town plan centered on the intersection of roads and the railroad line Rochelle grew rapidly, reaching a population of 793 by 1900. Just a decade after its founding, however, a fire destroyed much of the nascent downtown; the city was rebuilt and continued to ex…
The Rochelle post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rochelle rank for history?
Rochelle 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 Rochelle?
One place: the Rochelle Historic District (listed 2008).
How old are the homes in Rochelle?
17% of Rochelle’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.7 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2005
