Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Wathena Fruit Growers' Association Building. Below: maps from 1961 on and the census since 1880.
The Wathena post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wathena is more historic than 63% 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 Wathena’s 12.9 sits above most of its state (69% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Wathena’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Wathena.
Wathena was founded in 1856. The city is named in honor of Chief Wathena, a Native American chief of the Kickapoo tribe who previously lived in the area.
The first post office in Wathena was established in 1855, but before August, 1859, the post office was called Bryan.
The St. Joseph & Denver Railroad was extended to Wathena in 1860.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Wathena, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Our railroad interests are probably not as far advanced as some parts of our State, notwithstanding the first railroad in Kansas was built, in the year 1860, from El wood to Wathena, a distance of four miles, and enough rolling stock furnished to form a good construction train. This railroad was called the St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad, and was to follow the route surveyed for the Rose Port and Palermo Railroad.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Wathena perpetuates the name of a well known chief of the Kickapoo Indians, who owned the land in that vicinity up to the time of the treaty in 1854.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
"The bluffs above White Cloud slid down upon the railroad track. The depot at Wathena was swept away entire. Several houses in the lower part of the town were also carried away."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Black, William R., farmer, res 1 m n w Wathena, s s'd Troy and Wathena r'd, Washington tp. Blair, Joel P., farmer, res 4 m n w Wathena s s'd Troy r'd, Washington tp.
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.
Weddings 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 Wathena. 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 Wathena.
The 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.
Between 645 and 1,418 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wathena’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Wathena itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Wathena’s post office has been open since 1856.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Wathena post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Wathena is more historic than 63% 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.
One place: the Wathena Fruit Growers' Association Building (listed 2009).
20% of Wathena’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.0 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
