Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: User:Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 79% of U.S. towns. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1880.
The La Porte City post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, La Porte City is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age 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 La Porte City’s 53.1 sits above most of its state (76% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% 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 La Porte City’s history is told.
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.
1895Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of La Porte City.
La Porte City was platted in 1855. It is named after La Porte, Indiana, the former home of one of its founders.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention La Porte City, cut from the printed page as they were published.
October 7, 1870, G. W. Hayzlett, Jasper Parks and thirty-nine others presented a petition to the Circuit Court, praying for the incorporation of La Porte City. An election was ordered, and held at the " Kennebec House " (now the National), January 31, 1871, which resulted — 110 votes "for incorporation" and 75 votes "against incorporation;" and on the 11th day of February, 1871, the Court declared the town of La Porte City duly incorporated.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
time to the Waterloo, Cedar Falls & Northern Railway, successor to the Waterloo & Cedar Falls Rapid Transit Railway. In 1910 he extended the line from Denver Junction to Waverly and in 191 2 built the road from Waterloo to La Porte City and the following year from La Porte City to Urbana, while in 1914 the circuit was completed in the extension of the line from Urbana to Cedar Rapids. In the building and development of the interurban railway system Mr. Cass has contributed in large measure to the welfare of those sections through which the road has passed. His plans have been carefully formulated and promptly exe-
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and the south he came to Black Hawk county, casting in his lot with its pioneer settlers. He then began farming near La Porte City and devoted a few years to the work of tilling the soil but at the end of that time again turned his attention to the carpenter's trade, which he followed until his retirement from active business life. He now lives in La Porte City at the advanced age of seventyeight years and throughout the entire period of his residence in this county he has ever enjoyed the confidence, good-will and esteem of his fellow townsmen.
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.
Born hereJohn C. Chapple is born here
Born hereFran Allison is born hereBuiltLa Porte City Station is built
In the archiveWalnut and 3rd Streets, LaPorte City, Iowa - c. 1915
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of La Porte City. 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 La Porte City.
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 La Porte City’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 1,006 and 2,324 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on La Porte City’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The La Porte City post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
La Porte City is more historic than 79% 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.
7 listings: 7 buildings, among them the LaPorte City Town Hall and Fire Station (listed 1977, the first). 11 historic buildings in all.
34% of La Porte City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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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