Hutchinson’s post office opened in 1871, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 83% of U.S. towns · #9 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it
18 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 234 buildings between them. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Hutchinson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hutchinson’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hutchinson is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #9 of 151 in Kansas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hutchinson’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 Hutchinson’s 63.5 sits above most of its state (94% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 252 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% 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 (±2.3 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 Hutchinson’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The city of Hutchinson was founded in 1871 when frontiersman Clinton "C.C." Hutchinson contracted with the Santa Fe Railway to make a town at the railroad's crossing over the Arkansas River. The town actually sprang up about one-half mile north, on the banks of Cow Creek, where a few houses already existed. Hutchinson later founded the Reno County Bank in 1873, and by 1878 had erected the state's first water mill at Hutchinson. The community earned the nickname "Temperance City" due to the prohibition of alcohol set by its founder who placed a deed restriction on every lot prohibiting the sale or gifting of any alcoholic beverage which, if violated, would result in forfeiture of the lot, improvements, and payments associated with its sale and purchase. Hutchinson was incorporated as a third-class city in August 1872.
Passages that mention Hutchinson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Reno County, Kansas1917 · page 314Read the page →
Read the text
Elmer is the first station out of Hutchinson on the Hutchinson & Southem branch of the Santa be railroad. It was established when the Hutchinson & Southern railroad was built south from Hutchinson. The plat ol the town was filed for registry on September 25, [886. The town is a -hipping point for cattle and grain and serves a good agricultural country.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In June, [872, C. C. Hutchinson, the founder of the city of Hutchinson, made a contract with the directors oi the Santa Fe railroad, at their annual meeting' in Topeka, to build a town at a point where the railroad would cross the Little Arkansas river. The company was to share equally in the proceeds <>l" the sale of lots mi the townsite. At that time it was supposed that the proposed town would he located near where Sedgwick City is now situated. It had been the intention of the directors oi the road to build south, with an ultimate terminus of San Antonio, Texas.
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
Hutchinson, 1871 to 1976
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.
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.
Hutchinson’s post office has been open since 1871.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Applewood Meadows Manufactured Home CommunityBrookhaven Mobile Home VillageCoach Lamp Village Mobile Home Park IHutchinson Regency Mobile Home ParkMac's Mobile Home ParkMelody Acres Mobile Home ParkObeevilleSands Mobile Home Park and Rentals
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Hutchinson
EastsideErickson AnimalFairlawn
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Hutchinson’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The Hutchinson post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hutchinson rank for history?
Hutchinson is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #9 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.
What is on the National Register in Hutchinson?
18 listings: 14 buildings, among them the Terminal Station (listed 1983, the first), 3 historic districts, the Downtown Core North Historic District, the Downtown Core South Historic District and the Houston Whiteside Historic District, with 234 contributing buildings, and 1 object. 252 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Hutchinson?
27% of Hutchinson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1960.
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 the Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (18), 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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