Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1844.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lewisport’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lewisport is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lewisport’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 Lewisport’s 29.2 sits near the middle of its state (50% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% 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 (±5.6 points). Two sources give 1839.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Lewisport’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lewisport was originally a ferry landing site known as "Little Yellow Banks", in allusion to Owensboro's original name of "Yellow Banks". The first settler was James Prentis, who platted the current town in 1837 with his brother John. An attempt to rename the city "Prentisport" failed, though, when James insisted the town be named after his friend Dr. John Lewis instead. The town was chartered as "Lewisport" in 1839, and the post office was established under that name in 1844. The city was formally incorporated by the state assembly the same year, but needed to be reincorporated in 1882.
Between 308 and 1,832 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lewisport’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Lewisport’s history
What year was Lewisport founded?
In 1839, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Lewisport’s post office opened in 1844, and the census of 1870 counted 308 people here.
How does Lewisport rank for history?
Lewisport 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 Lewisport?
6 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Horace Patterson House (listed 1984, the first).
How old are the homes in Lewisport?
11% of Lewisport’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 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 (9), Wikidata (6), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.
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