Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Trappers Bay State Park Picnic Shelter. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1970 on, and the census since 1900.
The Lake Park post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Austin (1873), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake Park is more historic than 66% 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 Lake Park’s 8.4 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Lake Park’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lake Park.
Lake Park had its start in the year 1882 by the building of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway through that territory. Lake Park was incorporated in 1892.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lake Park, cut from the printed page as they were published.
west is Diamond Lake, which gives name to the township in which it is located, and in the southern part of Silver Lake Township is the lake from which the township derives its name. Its greatest length is about two miles and the village of Lake Park is on its northeastern shore. Directly south of Silver Lake, about four and a half miles distant in Excelsior Township, is Stony Lake, which is drained by Stony Creek into the Little Sioux River. At the southwest, corner of Lakeville Township is a group of three lakes — Sylvan, Pratt and Pillsbury — Sylvan
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Lake, in Silver Lake township. The building of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad in 1882 stimulated the building of several towns along the line, and Lake Park was one of the principal ones. The first settlement in Silver Lake township was made in August, 1868, by Greorge Nicholson, who took the first homestead in that locality.
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 archivePioneer Hotel in Lake Park, Iowa (1902)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lake Park. 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 Lake Park.
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 Lake Park’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.
Grew from 541 people in 1900 to 1,167 in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lake Park’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Lake Park’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Austin, 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).
The Lake Park post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lake Park is more historic than 66% 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.
One place: the Trappers Bay State Park Picnic Shelter (listed 1990).
34% of Lake Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.0 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1961.
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2004