Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #30 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it
21 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Black Jack Battlefield, a National Historic Landmark, and three historic districts with 14 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1885 on.
The Palmyra Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Louisiana (1856), Prairie City (1856) and Black Jack (1858), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Palmyra Township was named after a small trail stop on the Santa Fe Trail that was later absorbed into Baldwin City.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Palmyra Township is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #30 of 151 in Kansas. Its National Register listings hold 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 Palmyra Township’s 42.5 sits above most of its state (90% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 33 historic buildings outnumber those of 82% 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.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Five other post offices 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Palmyra Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Palmyra Township.
It was named after a small trail stop on the Santa Fe Trail that was later absorbed into Baldwin City. When it was first established in 1855, it was called Calhoun, until 1858.
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.
BuiltVinland Presbyterian Church is builtBuiltStony Point Evangelical Lutheran Church is builtBuiltVinland Grange Hall is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Palmyra Township. 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 Palmyra Township.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Palmyra Township post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Palmyra Township is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #30 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.
21 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Vinland Grange Hall (listed 2000, the first), 3 historic districts, the Barnes-Hoskinson Farmstead, the Knud Anderson Farmstead and the Vinland Fair Association Fairgrounds, with 14 contributing buildings, and 4 sites. 33 historic buildings in all.
23% of Palmyra Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (15), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
