Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Bob Linsdell · CC BY 3.0More historic than 54% of U.S. towns. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Cook Landing Site, a National Historic Landmark. Below: 4 old photos and papers and maps from 1963 on.
The Waimea post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Waimea is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Few Hawaii towns list much on the Register (a typical Hawaii town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Waimea’s 32.6 sits above most of its state (96% of Hawaii towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Waimea’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Waimea.
Between 200 and 600 AD, the first settlers arrived in Kaua‘i from the Marquesas Islands. It is not clear why the voyagers sought a new homeland. They brought taro, sweet potato, pigs, fowl, and seeds. They were experienced farmers and fishermen, with advanced irrigation techniques that allowed them to thrive on the land.
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.
Born hereHenry Martyn Whitney is born hereBorn hereLarry Ramos is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Waimea. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Waimea.
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 Waimea’s page.
Retake this view · +15Waimea’s post office has been open since 1900.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Waimea post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Waimea is more historic than 54% 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.
6 listings: 4 buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure.
16% of Waimea’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 1.7% for a Hawaii town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 the Library of Congress (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
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