Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Public domain · Public domainMore historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #130 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 45 buildings. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1870.
The Kendallville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kendallville is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #130 of 593 in Indiana. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Kendallville’s 47.4 sits above most of its state (74% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 50 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% 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.
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.
1886Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveResident section
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Kendallville.
Kendallville was founded in 1849, and the post office had already been in operation in the area since 1837. The city was named after Amos Kendall, 8th United States Postmaster General.
The Iddings-Gilbert-Leader-Anderson Block and Kendallville Downtown Historic District are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kendallville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
he held at Sturgis, Michigan, on the third Wednesday in July. 1867. He was also instructed to vote for Robert Dykes as director of the company, from Kendallville. In July, 1869, some misgivings having arisen in the breasts of the citizens of Kendallville regarding the good faith of the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad Company as to
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Previous to the year 1832 no white man had made the present site of Kendallville his home, but everything was just as it had been placed by the fashioning hand of the Creator. During the autumn of 1832, or perhaps the spring of 1833, a man named David Bundle, a tall, awkward specimen of the gams homo, who. like the immortal
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kendallville. 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 Kendallville.
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 Kendallville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 2,164 people in 1870 to 10,271 in 2020, 4 times over.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kendallville’s Wikipedia page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kendallville’s history is told.
The Kendallville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kendallville is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #130 of 593 in Indiana. 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.
Two places: the Iddings-Gilbert-Leader-Anderson Block (listed 1987) and the Kendallville Downtown Historic District (2003).
27% of Kendallville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1970.
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 (6), the Library of Congress (5), 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, 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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