Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns · #30 of 140 in Iowa. What drives it
63 places in town are on the National Register, among them ten historic districts with 897 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1860.
The Cedar Rapids post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1849. Four smaller post offices, Kingston City (1856), Kenwood Park (1891) and Sylvia (1896), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cedar Rapids is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns, #30 of 140 in Iowa. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Cedar Rapids ranks #91 on History.
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 Cedar Rapids’ 69.6 sits above most of its state (79% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 956 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% 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 country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Cedar Rapids’s post office has been open since 1846. Four 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Cedar Rapids.
The location of present-day Cedar Rapids was in the territory of the Meskwaki and Sauk peoples at the time of European American settlement.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Cedar Rapids, cut from the printed page as they were published.
![The town sites were laid out as follows, though they were only squatter's rights: Westport in July, 1838, by Israel Mitchell; Columbus (Cedar Rapids), September, 1838, by "William [or Wilbert] Stone; Ivanhoe, October, 1838, by Anson Cowles ; while the town site of Cedar Rapids was laid out by N. B.…](https://images.townratings.com/story/5984/bk-c81bbb091a5cccee-l.jpg)
The town sites were laid out as follows, though they were only squatter's rights: Westport in July, 1838, by Israel Mitchell; Columbus (Cedar Rapids), September, 1838, by "William [or Wilbert] Stone; Ivanhoe, October, 1838, by Anson Cowles ; while the town site of Cedar Rapids was laid out by N. B. Brown and others August 4, 1841. The first plat, however, recorded was by the father of Elias Doty. This was recorded after the land had come into market, when Westport was re-named Newark, and was filed November 12, 1844.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
"KINGSTON CITY "Is a place of about 350 inhabitants, situated on the west side of the Cedar river, opposite the city of Cedar Rapids. It is connected with this city by a wooden bridge, and is about one-quarter of a mile from the Cedar Rapids depot of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad. In the year 1838 Robert Ellis and 0. Bowling settled on land in the vicinity, and in the .year following Messrs.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBirds eye view of the city of Cedar Rapids and Kingston, Linn Co., Iowa 1868
Born hereCarl Van Vechten is born here
BuiltPhilip A. Wolff House and Carriage House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltSeminole Valley Farmstead is built
BuiltHotel Roosevelt is built
BuiltRobert and Esther Armstrong House is built
Born hereMichael Emerson is born here
Born hereAshton Kutcher is born here
Born hereElijah Wood is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cedar Rapids. 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 Cedar Rapids.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 12Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Cedar Rapids’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,830 people in 1860 to 137,710 in 2020, more than tenfold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cedar Rapids’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cedar Rapids’s history is told.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Cedar Rapids post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1849.
Cedar Rapids is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns, #30 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.
63 listings: 46 buildings, among them the Paramount Theater Building (listed 1976, the first), 13 historic districts with 897 contributing buildings, 3 structures, and 1 object. 956 historic buildings in all.
14% of Cedar Rapids’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1974.
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), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (63), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
