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BHistory
History · Afton

Afton dates to 1855, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 62% of U.S. towns · #69 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it

Its Register listings are the Erastus Bolles House, the Newington Gilbert House and the Cushing Hotel. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1946 on, and the census since 1880.

1855founded
3on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Afton’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Afton began

When was Afton founded?

1855

Afton dates its founding to 1855 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1880.

First census: 130 in 18802020 census: 2,955171 years

How historic is Afton?

B

More historic than 62% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1857.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Afton’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Afton is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #69 of 273 in Minnesota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Afton’s overall grade.
Founding era1855, from Wikidata: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194016.7% of homes (±6.6) · typical MN town 8.1% · U.S. 8.4%BNational Register3 listings, 10.1 per 10,000 residents · typical MN town 2.1 · U.S. 2.4B+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 62%
NewerOlder
Minnesota towns of 2,500+ (273)Ahead of 75%

Minnesota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Minnesota town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Afton’s 10.1 sits above most of its state (76% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 3 listings 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 B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.6 points). Two sources give 1855.

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 Afton’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Afton’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo2 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewMackey House, Washington Avenue: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Afton came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Afton.

Read it all →

The first settlers in the area arrived in 1837. The settlement of Afton was platted in 1855, with the name chosen from a poem (Sweet Afton) by Robert Burns. A post office has been in operation at Afton since 1857. The city contains three properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the 1856 Erastus Bolles House, the 1864 Newington Gilbert House, and the 1867 Cushing Hotel.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Afton in 1881

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

A meeting of the legal voters of the town of Afton was called at Paterson's hotel, in the vilage of Afton, October 20th, 1868, W, H. Getchell was chosen chairman, Joseph Haskell elected moderator, and Richard Buswell clerk. On motion, the meeting was adjourned to the schoolhouse, and elected Joseph…
History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley1881 · page 400Read the page →
Read the text

A meeting of the legal voters of the town of Afton was called at Paterson's hotel, in the vilage of Afton, October 20th, 1868, W, H. Getchell was chosen chairman, Joseph Haskell elected moderator, and Richard Buswell clerk. On motion, the meeting was adjourned to the schoolhouse, and elected Joseph Haskell, G. W. Cutler and H. L. Thomas, supervisors; M. H. Thomas,

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A meeting of the legal voters of the town of Afton was called at Paterson’s hotel, in the vilage of Afton, October 20th, 1858, W, II. Getchell was chosen chairman, Joseph Haskell elected moderator, and Richard Buswell clerk. On mo¬ tion, the meeting was adjourned to the schoolhouse, and elected Jos…
History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota1881 · page 400Read the page →
Read the text

A meeting of the legal voters of the town of Afton was called at Paterson’s hotel, in the vilage of Afton, October 20th, 1858, W, II. Getchell was chosen chairman, Joseph Haskell elected moderator, and Richard Buswell clerk. On mo¬ tion, the meeting was adjourned to the schoolhouse, and elected Joseph Haskell, G. W. Cutler and II. L. Thomas, supervisors; M. II. Thomas,

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The village of Afton is located on section 22, on the right bank of Lake St. Croix. It was laid out and platted by R. Haskell, Joseph Haskell, H. L. Thomas and C. S. Getchell, in May.
History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley1881 · page 402Read the page →
Read the text

The village of Afton is located on section 22, on the right bank of Lake St. Croix. It was laid out and platted by R. Haskell, Joseph Haskell, H. L. Thomas and C. S. Getchell, in May.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The village of Afton is located on section 22, on the right bank of Lake St. Croix. It was laid out and platted by It. Haskell, Joseph Has¬ kell, II. L. Thomas and C. S. Getchell, in May, 1855. It has a main street passing from north to south, with short streets extending up the sides of the bluffs…
History of Washington County and the St. Croix Valley Including the Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota1881 · page 402Read the page →
Read the text

The village of Afton is located on section 22, on the right bank of Lake St. Croix. It was laid out and platted by It. Haskell, Joseph Has¬ kell, II. L. Thomas and C. S. Getchell, in May, 1855. It has a main street passing from north to south, with short streets extending up the sides of the bluffs. At the head of Main street stands the St. Croix Valley Academy, while in the cen¬

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.

Timeline

Afton, 1855 to 1946

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855
    FoundingAfton is established
  3. 1856BuiltErastus Bolles House is built
  4. 1857Post officeThe Afton post office opens
  5. 1864BuiltNewington Gilbert House is built
  6. 1867BuiltCushing Hotel is built
  7. 1887In the archiveMap of Lakeland and Afton, Minnesota (1887)
  8. 20th century
  9. 1946On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Afton, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s1 item
Map of Lakeland and Afton, Minnesota (1887)1887Map of Lakeland and Afton, Minnesota (1887)Map
1890s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Date unknown2 to date
Mackey House, Washington AvenueDate?Mackey House, Washington AvenueOctagonal House, Washington AvenueDate?Octagonal House, Washington Avenue
Today10 recent
Newington Gilbert House2015Newington Gilbert HouseErastus Bolles House2015Erastus Bolles HouseCushing Hotel2015Cushing HotelAfton Historical Museum2015Afton Historical MuseumInt94wRoad-CR15-MN95s-CR19-OverheadSign2012Int94wRoad-CR15-MN95s-CR19-OverheadSignInt94wMN95sSignsRoad-MM12012Int94wMN95sSignsRoad-MM1StCroixAboveAfton2008StCroixAboveAftonResidential street2008Residential streetCushing Hotel 22008Cushing Hotel 2Cushing Hotel 2 (cropped)2008Cushing Hotel 2 (cropped)
On the map

Afton on the map, 1946 to 1993

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

Afton on the 1946 USGS mapAfton on the 1993 USGS map1946Hudson 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 Afton.

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.

Mackey House, Washington Avenue
Retake this viewMackey House, Washington Avenue

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Afton’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

3 historic places in Afton

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
3
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Erastus Bolles House
Erastus Bolles House, built 1856Newington Gilbert House, built 1864Cushing Hotel, built 1867
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Greek Revival2
Erastus Bolles HouseGreek Revival · Built 1856
Newington Gilbert HouseGreek Revival · Built 1864
Cushing HotelBuilt 1867

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Afton, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,000188019001920194019601980200020202,955

Grew from 130 people in 1880 to 2,955 in 2020, more than tenfold.

12 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Afton’s post office has been open since 1857.

Gone or out of use
Aftonlocale
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Afton
Evergreen CommunityFahlstromMemorial LutheranMound PrairieSaint Paulus LutheranSaint Peter Lutheran

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

St. Marys PointIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLake St. Croix BeachIts storyCWest Lakeland TownshipIts storyDDenmark Township1 historic placeB−Woodbury1 historic placeCLakeland3 historic placesA−

Questions about Afton’s history

What year was Afton founded?

In 1855, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Afton’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 1880 counted 130 people here.

How does Afton rank for history?

Afton is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #69 of 273 in Minnesota. 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 Afton?

Three places: the Erastus Bolles House (listed 1982), the Newington Gilbert House (1982) and the Cushing Hotel (1985).

How old are the homes in Afton?

17% of Afton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1979.

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 (11), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, 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 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.