Founding year: the first Estherville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1881.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Estherville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Estherville is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #105 of 140 in Iowa. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Estherville’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 Estherville’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 B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1881 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Estherville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 8,108 in 1970; 5,904 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Estherville’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Estherville, building by building, 1897–1920
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.
Emmet County was initially created by an act of the Iowa Legislature in 1851. The area that is now Estherville saw its first settlers arrive around 1856 and into 1857. The city was selected as the county seat in 1859, and was eventually incorporated in 1881.
Estherville was named after Esther A. Ridley, one of the first white female settlers in the area. Many of Estherville's current residents are the descendants of the original Scandinavian, German and Irish immigrants that arrived in the community in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Passages that mention Estherville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa1917Read the page →
Read the text
James A. Lyons, auditor of state, issued their certificate to the effect that they had "made examination of the returns of the special census taken by the authority of the incorporated Town of Estherville and have ascertained that the said incorporated Town of Estherville, Iowa, is shown by said returns to have a population in excess of two thousand, to wit: 2,185. Therefore we find that the said incorporated Town of Estherville is entitled to become a city of the second class."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Emmet County and Dickinson County, Iowa1917 · page 136Read the page →
Read the text
At the time the town was laid out the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company was building its line from Emmetsburg to Estherville and the Town of High Lake was on the line of railroad. When the railroad company removed its tracks a little later High Lake lost its opportunity to become a city, and where it was platted is now a fai-m. What little business had been established there was diverted to Wallingford, on the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific.
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.
Timeline
Estherville, 1859 to 1972
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Estherville post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1881.
How does Estherville rank for history?
Estherville is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #105 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 Estherville?
31% of Estherville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1956.
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 (6), 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.
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