Mount Vernon dates to 1847, and 40% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #10 of 140 in Iowa. What drives it
17 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 49 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1891 on and the census since 1870.
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1842.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mount Vernon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Vernon is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #10 of 140 in Iowa. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mount Vernon’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 Mount Vernon’s 146 sits above most of its state (88% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 66 historic buildings outnumber those of 87% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±11.0 points). Two sources give 1847.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Mount Vernon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Mount Vernon was laid out in 1847, but its origins date back to at least 1838, when it was known as Pinhook, a rest stop on Military Road, which ran between Dubuque, on the Mississippi River, and Iowa City. It was renamed Mount Vernon in 1847, after the estate of George Washington. A post office has been in operation in Mount Vernon since 1849. The Iowa Conference (Methodist) Male and Female Seminary (which later became Cornell College) was established in the town in 1853, and the Northwestern Railroad reached it in 1859, bringing new business to the town as its population expanded.
reached in the eastern townships at a depth of somewhat more than 300 feet. This impervious bed of altered clay stops the descent of ground water, which thus is stored in large quantities in the overlying limestones and supplies some of the important wells of the county such as that of the town of Mount Vernon. At the time when these sea clays were laid, eastern Iowa was under sea, but so near was the low lying land to the north and east that vast quantities of mud were brought in by its rivers forming deposits nearly 300 feet in thickness.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
way had been projected west of the Mississippi river. And yet the scattered settlements sent across the unbroken prairie and the unbridged rivers no less than 161 students to the young school on this the first year of its existence. The most important route to Mount Vernon was the military road extending from Dubuque to Iowa City. Both towns contributed their quota of students, Dubuque sending no less than twelve, although the entire population of Dubuque county was then, less than 16,000. Considering the difficulty of communications, the poverty of the pioneers, the wide extent of the sphere of influence of the school is remarkable.
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
Mount Vernon, 1842 to 1999
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Mount Vernon’s post office has been open since 1849. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Franklin
1842–1846
Saint Julian
1846–1858
Mount Vernon
1849–today
18401930today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Colonial Estates Mobile Home ParkVernon Heights Mobile Home Park
Gone or out of use
Saint Julian Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Mount Vernon
Mount Vernon
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Mount Vernon’s history
What year was Mount Vernon founded?
In 1847, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Mount Vernon’s post office opened in 1842, and the census of 1870 counted 910 people here.
How does Mount Vernon rank for history?
Mount Vernon is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #10 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.
What is on the National Register in Mount Vernon?
17 listings: 14 buildings, among them the King Memorial Chapel (listed 1976, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Cornell College-Mount Vernon Historic District, the Ash Park Historic District and the Mount Vernon Commercial Historic District, with 49 contributing buildings. 66 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Mount Vernon?
40% of Mount Vernon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.0 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (17), 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.
