Its Register listings are the Charles H. Calkins House and the Hezekiah W. and Sarah E. Fishell Cobb House. Its Register listings are the Charles H. Calkins House and the Hezekiah W. and Sarah E. Fishell Cobb House. Below: maps from 1926 on and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Perry post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Perry’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Perry is more historic than 65% 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 Perry’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 Perry’s 14.5 sits above most of its state (85% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% 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 (±6.7 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 Perry’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A post office has been in operation in Perry since 1850. The city was named for Oliver Hazard Perry, an American naval commander in the War of 1812. Perry was incorporated in 1893. Perry is also home to the Calkins-McQueen Museum, a home turned museum listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Calkins-McQueen museum is currently preserved by the Perry Historical Society.
The Perry post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Perry rank for history?
Perry 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 Perry?
Two places: the Charles H. Calkins House (listed 1978) and the Hezekiah W. and Sarah E. Fishell Cobb House (1997).
How old are the homes in Perry?
18% of Perry’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (2), 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.
2015
2014
2014
2005
