Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1887.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Frontenac’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Frontenac is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #98 of 151 in Kansas. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Frontenac’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 Frontenac’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 is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 points). Two sources give 1886.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Frontenac’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Frontenac was established as a coal mining town in 1886 in the Cherokee-Crawford Coal Fields in the western Ozark Plateau.
On the night of November 9, 1888, Frontenac suffered the worst mining disaster in Kansas history, when a coal dust explosion killed 44 miners.
During the last decade of the nineteenth century and in the early twentieth century the town was populated primarily by immigrant families from eastern and southeastern Europe, predominantly Sicilian, Italian, and Slavic people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its maximum population neared 4,000. It housed various ethnic lodges and drinking parlors despite the state's increasingly severe ban on the distribution, sale, and manufacture of alcoholic beverages.
Passages that mention Frontenac, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas1905 · page 46Read the page →
Read the text
Frontenac, located three miles north and one east of Pittsburg, is a flourishing town of two thousand inhabitants. The Santa Fe Railroad furnishes transportation to the people, while the Pittsburg Railroad trolley cars carry people to and from Pittsburg. Frontenac is the outgrowth of the Devlin or Santa Fe Coal Company. Here are located the coal shafts and offices of said company, and here most of the people employed in and about the mines live. They have built comfortable cottages for themselves and families. Excellent schools are maintained, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas1905 · page 477Read the page →
Read the text
tenac as a druggist, banker and in connection with other business interests, and for a number of years was a leading medical practitioner, although in recent years his business has made too great demandon his time for him to continue regular practice. The town of Frontenac owemuch to him for its growth and progress, and his public-spirited endeavor has been freely accorded to all enterprises looking to the community's upbuilding and welfare.
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
Frontenac, 1886 to 2010
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1886, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Frontenac’s post office opened in 1887, and the census of 1890 counted 600 people here.
How does Frontenac rank for history?
Frontenac is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #98 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 Frontenac?
13% of Frontenac’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1979.
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), 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 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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