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C+History
History · St. Charles

St. Charles’ post office opened in 1854, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 43% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: maps from 1917 on and the census since 1900.

1854first post office
0on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How St. Charles began

When was St. Charles founded?

1854

The St. Charles post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,317 in 19002020 census: 1,992172 years

How historic is St. Charles?

C+

More historic than 43% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first St. Charles post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade

What drives St. Charles’ History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, St. Charles is more historic than 43% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of St. Charles’ overall grade.
Founding era1854, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194021.0% of homes (±7.4) · typical MI town 11.9% · U.S. 8.4%B+National RegisterNo listings counted · typical MI town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 43%
NewerOlder

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 St. Charles’ 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.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.4 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 St. Charles’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of St. Charles are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of St. Charles’ homes were built before 1964.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Charles’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Charles’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

St. Charles, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of St. Charles yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

St. Charles is a village in Saginaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The village is located in the northwest corner of St. Charles Township with portions of the village located within Brant and Swan Creek townships. As of the 2020 census, St. Charles had a population of 1,992.

Its first post office opened in 1854. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,054 to 1,992 (-3%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about St. Charles in 1881

Passages that mention St. Charles, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The first printing office, and the first newspaper to try its fortunes in the village of St. Charles, was owned and edited by Daniel Griggs. It was a four-column folio, and issued weekly, making its first appearance May 1, 1877; and at the end of six months, from want of support, expired. It advoca…
History of Saginaw County, Michigan1881 · page 473Read the page →
Read the text

The first printing office, and the first newspaper to try its fortunes in the village of St. Charles, was owned and edited by Daniel Griggs. It was a four-column folio, and issued weekly, making its first appearance May 1, 1877; and at the end of six months, from want of support, expired. It advocated the Spiritualistic ideas, and was named the Angel of Light.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

St. Charles, decade by decade

Today2 recent
St. Charles, MI location2019St. Charles, MI locationBad River St Charles Michigan2015Bad River St Charles Michigan
On the map

St. Charles on the map, 1917 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Charles. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

St. Charles on the 1917 USGS mapSt. Charles on the 1985 USGS map1917St Charles sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of St. Charles.

People over time

St. Charles, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 2,276

Between 1,300 and 2,276 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on St. Charles’ Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

St. Charles TownshipIts storyC+Brant TownshipIts storyC+Swan Creek TownshipIts storyC−

Questions about St. Charles’ history

What year was St. Charles founded?

The St. Charles post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does St. Charles rank for history?

St. Charles is more historic than 43% 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.

How old are the homes in St. Charles?

21% of St. Charles’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1964.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.