Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: American007 · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 26% of U.S. towns · #115 of 140 in Iowa. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Coralville Public School and the Coralville Union Ecclesiastical Church. Most of Coralville was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1995. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1880.
The Coralville post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1873.
More historic than 26% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Coralville is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #115 of 140 in Iowa. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Coralville’s 0.9 sits below most of its state (35% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 Coralville’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1900, then grew more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Coralville’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Coralville. 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 Coralville.
From Wikipedia’s history of Coralville.
Coralville is the location of the Edgewater Park Site, a 3,800-year-old archaeological site along the Iowa River. Edgewater is the oldest site in Iowa with evidence of domesticated plant use.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Coralville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The village of Coralville, one mile up stream from this city, suffered severely. All of its lower part was deserted; about twenty houses were inundated. The manufacturers there suffered. Tlie river-wall of M. T.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
old mill. Like the old oaken bucket, its praises we sing, " what pleasure, what comfort old memories bring," After a time Switzer sold his burrs, bolts, etc., to the Milling Company who were building their mill at Coralville, and turned his grist mill into a saw mill. Before these mills went into operation, and during the time they remained unbuilt after having been burned down — these were the times of hardship of getting flour and going a great distance to mill spoken of in these papers. Many went to English river mills, provided
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 archiveCoralville iowa 1870
BuiltCoralville Public School is built
BuiltCoralville Union Ecclesiastical Church is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereKyle Zobeck is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Coralville’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
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.
Coralville had its own post office from 1869 to 1902.
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 Coralville post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1873.
Coralville is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #115 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.
Two places: the Coralville Public School (listed 1974) and the Coralville Union Ecclesiastical Church (1977).
2% of Coralville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.1 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1995.
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 (10), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 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.
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