Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1846.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Marion’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Marion is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #65 of 142 in Kentucky. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Marion’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 Marion’s 3.5 sits below most of its state (30% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.1 points). Two sources give 1842.
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 Marion’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The city is named for Francis Marion, a brigadier general from South Carolina in the American Revolutionary War.
Marion was founded in 1842 on land donated by Dr. John S. Gilliam shortly after Crittenden County was created January 26, 1842, from a portion of Livingston County. The city was incorporated February 22, 1844, and a post office was established in 1846.
In 1864, at the end of the Civil War, the county courthouse in Marion was burned.
A railroad line from Blackford to Princeton was completed in 1887, and a depot was established at Marion. Originally owned by the Illinois Central Railroad, it has since been abandoned.
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 Marion’s history
What year was Marion founded?
In 1842, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Marion’s post office opened in 1846, and the census of 1870 counted 102 people here.
How does Marion rank for history?
Marion is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #65 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.
What is on the National Register in Marion?
One place: the Fohs Hall (listed 1982).
How old are the homes in Marion?
13% of Marion’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.1 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Kentucky town; the median home was built in 1968.
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), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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