The story
Read it all →How Rose Hill came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Rose Hill.
The first post office in Rose Hill was established in 1874. Rose Hill was founded in 1892.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
C−History
History · Rose Hill
Rose Hill’s post office opened in 1874
More historic than 17% of U.S. towns · #130 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it
Most of Rose Hill was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1955 on, and the census since 1960.
1874first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Quick answers
How Rose Hill began
When was Rose Hill founded?
1874
The Rose Hill post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 273 in 19602020 census: 4,185152 years
How historic is Rose Hill?
C−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 17% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Rose Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rose Hill’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rose Hill is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #130 of 151 in Kansas. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rose Hill’s overall grade.
Founding era1874, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19403.0% of homes (±2.6) · typical KS town 10.3% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical KS town 5.1 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 17%
NewerOlder
Kansas towns of 2,500+ (151)Ahead of 14%
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 Rose Hill’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±2.6 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 Rose Hill’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Rose Hill’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Rose Hill’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Rose Hill in 1916
Passages that mention Rose Hill, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Butler County Kansas1916 · page 582Read the page →
Read the text
capacity for one year, when he entered the employ of the National Bank of Commerce at Stillwell, Okla. After remaining with that institution, he returned to the State Bank of Douglass in the capacity of assistant cashier, and two years later, or in 1906, he came to Rose Hill, and assisted in organizing the Rose Hill State Bank, and became its cashier. The Rose Hill State Bank was organized with a paid up capital of $10,000 and commenced business August 18, 1906. It has a surplus fund of $10,500 and the bank owns its own fixtures and building, valued at
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Butler County Kansas1916 · page 589Read the page →
Read the text
the end of the railroad. He remained there during the winter of 1870 and 1871, and in the spring, came to Butler county, driving from Emporia. He preempted a claim one mile east and two miles north of the present site of Rose Hill. Soon after coming here, he built a house which was blown away by a cyclone in 1879. He also built a store a mile east of where Rose Hill now stands, and conducted a general mercantile store there, and was postmaster for six years. He then engaged in buying and shipping grain and stock, and, for a number of years, did
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
Rose Hill, 1874 to 1992
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Rose Hill, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1992
2015
2010On the map
Rose Hill on the map, 1955 to 1970
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rose Hill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1955Rose Hill sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rose Hill.
People over time
Rose Hill, census by census
Grew from 273 people in 1960 to 4,185 in 2020, more than tenfold.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Rose Hill’s Wikipedia page.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Rose Hill’s history
What year was Rose Hill founded?
The Rose Hill post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rose Hill rank for history?
Rose Hill is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #130 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.
How old are the homes in Rose Hill?
3% of Rose Hill’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.6 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1993.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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), Wikipedia, 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 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.