Founding year: the first Bellevue post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bellevue’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bellevue is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #13 of 59 in Idaho. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bellevue’s overall grade.
Idaho towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Idaho town has 8.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bellevue’s 92.7 sits above most of its state (95% of Idaho towns have fewer) while its 24 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Bellevue’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost half of its people between 1890 and 1900, then grew 7-fold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bellevue’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Bellevue, building by building, 1885–1907
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.
1885Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The Bellevue area was explored by fur trader Alexander Ross in 1824.
Bellevue was settled and chartered in 1882. The city is located on a mile-wide plateau noted for its rich soil suitable for fruit growing. The nearby lands are also rich with resources, and Bellevue grew as a mining town. Between 1881 and the 1893 crash of the silver market, the mines near Bellevue produced more than $60 million worth of silver, lead and gold. Some of Bellevue's mines included Keystone, Palmas, Antelope, Big Camus, Phoenix, Paymaster, Silver Tide, and Monday Mine.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Questions about Bellevue’s history
What year was Bellevue founded?
The Bellevue post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Bellevue rank for history?
Bellevue is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #13 of 59 in Idaho. 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 Bellevue?
Two places: the Bellevue Historic District (listed 1982) and the Henry Miller House (1975).
How old are the homes in Bellevue?
11% of Bellevue’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.0 points), against a typical 8.5% for an Idaho town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 (4), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2017
2012
2012
2004
