Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1868.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Guthrie’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Guthrie is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Guthrie’s 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 Guthrie’s 160 sits above most of its state (77% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 25 historic buildings outnumber those of 81% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±12.1 points). Two sources give 1867.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Guthrie’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The present location of Guthrie was the site of the Pondy Woods stagecoach stop in the 1840s; the community around it may have also been called State Line for a time, from the nearby Tennessee state line. The town was named for former Representative James Guthrie, the president of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at its founding in 1867. Guthrie was formally incorporated by the Kentucky Assembly in 1876. The town is also the birthplace of the first United States Poet Laureate Robert Penn Warren.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Guthrie’s history
What year was Guthrie founded?
In 1867, according to Wikidata. Guthrie’s post office opened in 1868.
How does Guthrie rank for history?
Guthrie is more historic than 71% 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.
What is on the National Register in Guthrie?
Two places: the Gray's Inn (listed 2004) and the Guthrie Historic District (2011).
How old are the homes in Guthrie?
21% of Guthrie’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.1 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Kentucky town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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