Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Hickert, Henry Building · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Its Register listing is the Hickert, Henry Building. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1985 on, and the census since 1890.
The Bird City post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Birdton (1885), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Bird City was named for Benjamin Bird, a cattleman.
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 Bird City’s history is told.
Peaked at 784 in 1950; 437 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bird City’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Bird City.
Bird City was founded in 1885. It was named for Benjamin Bird, a cattleman. The surrounding area was originally used predominately for livestock grazing.
Bird City was a station and shipping point on the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBird City, Kansas
BuiltHickert, Henry Building is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bird City.
1985St Francis sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bird City.
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 Bird City’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Bird City itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Bird City’s post office has been open since 1885. Another post office, Birdton, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Bird City post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Hickert, Henry Building (listed 2007).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
