Founding year: the first Girard post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Girard’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Girard is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Girard’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 Girard’s 39.6 sits above most of its state (89% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.5 points). 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 Girard’s past
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.
Girard was founded in the spring of 1868, in opposition to Crawfordsville, and named after the town of Girard, Pennsylvania, the former home of trustee Charles Strong. It was based around the surveyed line of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Gulf Railroad, in an attempt to gain an advantage over its rival.
The first post office in Girard was established in September 1868.
The first celebration in Girard was held on July 4, 1868, marking Sunday school and Independence Day. Under a law passed in March 1871, Girard became a city of the third class. In early April, the first city officers were elected. The last meeting of the trustees was held April 5, and the first meeting of the new Council was held on April 7.
Passages that mention Girard, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas1905 · page 103Read the page →
Read the text
sink a shaft. The coal could be taken from the surface too readilj to make it profitable to go to the expense of sinking shafts. Girard bad been laid out on the railroad survey, and it soon become the center of mining [Operations. Several coal companies opened headquarters in Girard, and coal was taken from the surface in strip and slope workings both north and south of Girard. along the railroad. Coal was also hauled to the railroad from the southeastern part of the county and loaded for shipment. At where Litchfield now stands strip and slope
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A Twentieth century history and biographical record of Crawford County, Kansas1905 · page 104Read the page →
Read the text
Moffatt and Sergeant, of Joplin. and when Colonel Edwin E. Brown, of Girard, laid before them his scheme to build a railroad southeast from a junction with the Gulf road at Girard to the zinc mines, passing through the coal fields, they put up the capital and built the mad and bought hundreds of acres of land, comprising the townsite of Pittsburg, which was built up later.
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
Girard, 1868 to 1952
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 Girard post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Girard rank for history?
Girard is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. 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 Girard?
9 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Julius A. Wayland House (listed 1976, the first). 11 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Girard?
18% of Girard’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1964.
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), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (9), 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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