Pocatello’s post office opened in 1882, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #5 of 59 in Idaho. What drives it
23 places in town are on the National Register, among them seven historic districts with 730 buildings between them. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1900.
Founding year: the first Pocatello post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1889.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Pocatello’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pocatello is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #5 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 Pocatello’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 Pocatello’s 130 sits above most of its state (98% of Idaho towns have fewer) while its 748 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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 (±1.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1889 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Pocatello’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
Pocatello, building by building, 1892–1921
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.
Shoshone and Bannock Indigenous tribes inhabited southeastern Idaho for hundreds of years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition across Idaho in 1805. The expedition's reports of the many riches of the region attracted fur trappers and traders to southeastern Idaho. The city is named after Chief Pocatello, a 19th-century Northern Shoshone leader.
Nathaniel Wyeth of Massachusetts established one of the first permanent settlements at Fort Hall in 1834, which is only a few miles northeast of Pocatello. When over-trapping and a shift in fashion to silk hats put an end to the fur trade, Fort Hall became a supply point for immigrants traveling the Oregon Trail.
Passages that mention Pocatello, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Bannock County, Idaho1915 · page (122)Read the page →
Read the text
Pocatello is pre-eminently a railroad town, and to the railroad she owes her birth as well as her growth.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Bannock County, Idaho1915 · page (30)Read the page →
Read the text
History of Bannock County rest. During the same summer a strong company of capitalists of Pocatello, Butte and Salt Lake City organized and made an effort to secure a lease of the mineral lands on the reservation; but other men in Pocatello, who had been watching
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
Pocatello, 1868 to 1937
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Pocatello post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1889.
How does Pocatello rank for history?
Pocatello is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #5 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 Pocatello?
23 listings: 16 buildings, among them the Standrod House (listed 1973, the first), and 7 historic districts with 730 contributing buildings. 748 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Pocatello?
12% of Pocatello’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 8.5% for an Idaho town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (7), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (23), Wikipedia, 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.
c. 1868
c. 1892
1899
1903
1903
1903
1904–1920
