Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: old-book passages.
The Slater post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Slater is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Slater’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.
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 Slater’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Slater.
There has been a post office in Slater since 1887. The city was named for Michael Slater, the original owner of the town site.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Slater, cut from the printed page as they were published.
the conditions embarrassing to any hopes tliere of a rapid growth. This difficulty, however, was in the court of time, overcome ; and since the construction through there of the Electric Interurban Line, Huxley has been obviously prosperous. Slater was not started until some time later, and was not one of the original Milwaukee towns. Cambridge, as the oldest town, would naturally have prospered most from the coming of the road, and it did prosper in no small measure; but in the days before there was any uniformity about railroad rates, Cambridge was never a favored point
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
ing their location and moving their portion of the town, business buildings and residences, to the new town of Slater. But this is another story. Other towns which had owed their existence to the coming of the railroads were Colo and Ontario, Colo had an immediate importance as a depot of railroad supplies for a time, and its establishment had had the effect of destroying utterly the near-by village of New Albany which never had been a considerable burg but which nevertheless had been known upon the map. Ontario was immediately adjacent to New Philadel-
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Slater post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Slater is more historic than 34% 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.
17% of Slater’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 22% for an Iowa town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.