Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #45 of 140 in Iowa. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 58 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
The Perry post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Alton (1858), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Perry is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #45 of 140 in Iowa. 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 Perry’s 77.6 sits above most of its state (79% of Iowa towns have fewer) while its 62 historic buildings outnumber those of 86% 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 Perry’s history is told.
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.
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.
1888Sheet 3 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Perry.
Perry was laid out as a town in 1869, named for "one of the owners of the road at that time. Col. Perry, of Keokuk". The original town site was bounded by Estella Street on the south, 8th Street on the east, 3rd Street on the west, and Dewey Avenue on the north.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Perry, cut from the printed page as they were published.
extends in a northwesterly direction between Beaver creek and the North Raccoon river, passing through a fertile prairie country, and leaving the county about eight miles east of the northwest corner, a few miles above the town of Perry. This road was also built through Dallas county about 1869-1870; and having four thriving towns along its line in the county — Waukee, Dallas Center, Minburn, and Perry — it affords excellent market privileges for all the east and north parts of the county. (For particulars of its origin, see page 173, History of Iowa — Railroads.)
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
140 feet long, with 300 feet of trestle work. It has no post-office, no railroad, and no town within its limits; but the town of Minburn is only a short distance from the east line, in Sugar Grove township, affording good postoffice and market privileges, and Perry is only about four miles north. The township has never had but one State case, which was State of Iowa vs. J. _ZT. JSlliott, for the murder of John 1ST. Bold. The defendant was convicted and sentenced to eleven years imprisonment. He took an appeal and was out on $10,000 bail when the sentence was reversed and a new trial
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.
BuiltSaint Patrick's Catholic Church and Rectory is builtBuiltPerry Carnegie Library Building is built
In the archiveMain streets
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 Perry. 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 Perry.
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 Perry’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 952 people in 1880 to 7,836 in 2020, 8 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Perry’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Perry’s post office has been open since 1869. Another post office, Alton, 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 Perry post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Perry is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #45 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.
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Perry Carnegie Library Building (listed 1996, the first), 1 historic district, the Dowtown Perry Historic District, with 58 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 62 historic buildings in all.
34% of Perry’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 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 (5), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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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