More historic than 8% of U.S. towns · #134 of 142 in Kentucky. What drives it
Most of Flatwoods was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Below: maps from 1898 on and the census since 1960.
The Flatwoods post office opened in 1938, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Advance (1892), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 3,741 in 19602020 census: 7,32588 years
How historic is Flatwoods?
D
More historic than 8% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Flatwoods post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Flatwoods’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Flatwoods is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #134 of 142 in Kentucky. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Flatwoods’ overall grade.
Kentucky towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kentucky town has 29.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Flatwoods’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (12% of Kentucky 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 D. The pre-1940 share (±1.8 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 Flatwoods’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area now known as Flatwoods was originally named "Advance": Advance Methodist Church formed a Sunday school beginning in 1860. The name was later changed to "Cheap", after John Cheap, a blind clergyman. The original farming community returned to the name of "Advance" when a post office was established in 1918. In 1938, the post office was renamed "Flatwoods", and the town was incorporated the same year under that name. Flatwoods is named for the area's unique topography, a belt of flat wooded land in the ancient Teays River valley on an elevation of approximately 650 feet (200 m) or higher, just south of and 150 feet (46 m) higher than the Ohio River valley. The availability of flat level land and low tax rates made Flatwoods a local hot spot of new construction in the 1950s and 1960s, when many upper-middle-class tract housing developments were built and quickly inhabited. A main c…
The Flatwoods post office opened in 1938, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Flatwoods rank for history?
Flatwoods is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #134 of 142 in Kentucky. 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 Flatwoods?
4% of Flatwoods’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Kentucky town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
