More historic than 12% of U.S. towns · #137 of 140 in Iowa. What drives it
Most of Asbury was built recently: 0.5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2003. Below: maps from 1900 on and the census since 1940.
Founding year: the first Asbury post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Asbury’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Asbury is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #137 of 140 in Iowa. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Asbury’s overall grade.
Iowa towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Iowa town has 9.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Asbury’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±0.8 points) is firm at this size. 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 Asbury’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Asbury was settled beginning in the 1830s, at first by Methodists. The city is named after British-born Bishop Francis Asbury, one of the first two bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States. The city was incorporated in 1933, following the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, which ended prohibition. The city incorporated to gain the legal standing necessary to sell alcohol, as liquor licenses were still forbidden in rural areas.
The Asbury post office opened in 1893, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Asbury rank for history?
Asbury is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #137 of 140 in Iowa. 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.
How old are the homes in Asbury?
0.5% of Asbury’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 2003.
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 (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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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