Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Old Runnymede Church, the I.P. Campbell Building and the Harper Standpipe. Its Register listings are the Old Runnymede Church, the I.P. Campbell Building and the Harper Standpipe. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1890.
The Harper post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cora City (1877), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Harper is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Harper’s 26.4 sits above most of its state (85% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harper. 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 Harper.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Peaked at 1,899 in 1960; 1,313 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Harper’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Harper.
Harper was founded in 1877 by a colony from Iowa. The city of Harper, like Harper County, is named for Sergeant Marion Harper of the 2nd Kansas Cavalry, who fell during the Civil War. Harper was incorporated as a city in 1880.
The first post office in Harper was established in May 1877 as Cora City, but in June of that year, the post office was renamed Harper.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltOld Runnymede Church is built
In the archiveStandard atlas of Harper County, Kansas - including a plat book of the villages, cities a…
In the archiveHarper, Kansas. Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad train between Wellington, Kansas a…
Born hereScott Wedman is born here
Born hereJerrod Niemann is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Harper’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Harper’s post office has been open since 1877. Another post office, Cora City, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Harper post office opened in 1877, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Harper is more historic than 78% 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.
Three places: the Old Runnymede Church (listed 1973), the I.P. Campbell Building (2006) and the Harper Standpipe (2017).
32% of Harper’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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