Founding year: the first Pentwater Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Pentwater Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pentwater Township is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Pentwater Township’s overall grade.
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 Pentwater Township’s 6.7 sits above most of its state (79% of Michigan 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 A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.7 points). 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 Pentwater Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 1,510 in 1890; 890 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pentwater Township’s Wikipedia page.
The story so far
Pentwater Township, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Pentwater Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Pentwater is a village in Oceana County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 890 at the 2020 census. The village is located within Pentwater Township. Pentwater is home to Mears State Park. The name Pentwater comes from Pent or Penned up waters. The entrance to the channel is notoriously shallow and for many years dictated the size of vessels that the village was able to accommodate.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,515 to 1,652 (+9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Pentwater Township, 1855 to 1973
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pentwater Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1932Ludington SW sheet · 1:31,680
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pentwater Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewPere Marquette Depot Pentwater, Michigan, 1910
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Pentwater Township’s page.
The Pentwater Township post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Pentwater Township rank for history?
Pentwater Township is more historic than 65% 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 Pentwater Township?
One place: the Navigation Structures at Pentwater Harbor (listed 2001).
How old are the homes in Pentwater Township?
23% of Pentwater Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (1), 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.
1911
1973
1973
2004
