Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #317 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Below: maps from 1936 on and the census since 1900.
The Muskegon Heights post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Muskegon Heights is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #317 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Muskegon Heights’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 Muskegon Heights’s history is told.
Peaked at 19,552 in 1960; 9,917 people lived here in 2020.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Muskegon Heights’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Muskegon Heights.
The city had sawmills. In 1938 a five-page "Chronological History of the City of Muskegon Heights” was published by the city.
In 2023, Bonnie McGlothin was elected mayor succeeding Walter Watt.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Muskegon Heights. 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 Muskegon Heights.
Muskegon Heights had its own post office from 1891 to 1896.
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 Muskegon Heights post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Muskegon Heights is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #317 of 701 in Michigan. 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.
42% of Muskegon Heights’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1945.
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), 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) 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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