The Payette post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Payetteville (1864), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 614 in 19002020 census: 8,127143 years
How historic is Payette?
B
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Payette post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Payette’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Payette is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #11 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 Payette’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 Payette’s 16.4 sits near the middle of its state (65% of Idaho towns have fewer) while its 14 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 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 Payette’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Payette, building by building, 1893–1917
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.
The settlement was originally named "Boomerang," a construction camp for the Oregon Short Line from 1882 to 1884 at the mouth of the Payette River. Logs were floated down the river to the sawmills at the camp to produce railroad ties. After completion of the railroad, the settlement moved upstream to its present site and incorporated in 1891 as "Payette," to honor François Payette, a French-Canadian fur trapper and one of the first white men to explore the area. He had arrived in present-day Idaho from Astoria and was later the head of the Fort Boise trading post for the British Hudson's Bay Company from 1835 to 1844. A large merry man, Payette was highly regarded for his helpful assistance to the many travelers who came through the fort. Following his retirement in 1844, he returned to Montreal, after which the rest of his life is a mystery.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Payette post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Payette rank for history?
Payette is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #11 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 Payette?
13 listings: 13 buildings, among them the David C. Chase House (listed 1978, the first). 14 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Payette?
19% of Payette’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 8.5% for an Idaho 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 Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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.
1941
1941
1941
