Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Norcatur City Hall · Photo: Ammodramus · CC0Its Register listing is the Norcatur City Hall. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1982 on.
The Norcatur post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Norcatur’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Norcatur.
Norcatur was founded in 1885 near the Nebraska border. Norcatur was named from its location near the border between Norton and Decatur counties. The first post office in Norcatur was established in October, 1885.
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.
Born hereElden Auker is born here
Born herePegeen Fitzgerald is born here
Born hereGil Dodds is born here
BuiltNorcatur City Hall is built
In the archive100F Lodge, Odd Fellows, Decatur Avenue, Norcator, KansasOne decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. 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 Norcatur’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.
Norcatur’s post office has been open since 1885.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Norcatur post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Norcatur City Hall (listed 2014).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2004