More historic than 17% of U.S. towns · #132 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it
Most of Fairmount Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1999. Below: maps from 1940 on and old-book passages.
The Fairmount Township post office opened in 1864, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Little Stranger (1860), Fairmount (1864) and Kelly's Station (1866), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 11,215162 years
How historic is Fairmount Township?
C−
More historic than 17% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Fairmount Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Fairmount Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fairmount Township is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #132 of 151 in Kansas. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fairmount Township’s overall grade.
Kansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kansas town has 5.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fairmount Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±1.5 points) is firm at this size. 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 Fairmount Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fairmount was platted in 1867. In 1912, Fairmount contained four stores and one factory. The Fairmount post office closed in 1934.
Currently, Fairmount contains several housing suburbs, near the city limits of Lake Quivira, Bonner Springs, Basehor, and the neighborhood of Piper in Kansas City, Kansas. It's fire and medical services are provided by Fairmount Township Fire and Rescue the Kansas City Kansas Fire Department. Policing services are provided by the Leavenworth and Wyandotte County Sheriff's Office, and the Basehor Police Department.
Passages that mention Fairmount Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Leavenworth County Kansas1921 · page 183Read the page →
Read the text
Fairmount Township. — Fairmount Township was organized on July 1, 1867, with the following boundaries: Commencing at the northwest corner of section ten, township ten, range twenty-two, and running thence south following section lines about five miles; thence west to the northwest corner of section three, township eleven, range twenty-two; thence
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
Fairmount Township, 1860 to 1940
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fairmount Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1940Bonner Springs sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fairmount Township.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Fairmount Township post office opened in 1864, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Fairmount Township rank for history?
Fairmount Township is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #132 of 151 in Kansas. 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.
How old are the homes in Fairmount Township?
3% of Fairmount Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.5 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1999.
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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.
