Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns · #121 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Thayer Hotel. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1890.
Annandale dates its founding to 1886 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1890.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Annandale is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #121 of 273 in Minnesota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Annandale’s 2.9 sits near the middle of its state (57% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Annandale’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Annandale.
Annandale was platted in 1886, and named after Annan, Scotland. A post office has been in operation at Annandale since 1887. Annandale was incorporated in 1888. One property in Annandale, the 1895 Thayer Hotel, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Annandale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Minneapolis & Pacific Railway Co., now a part of the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie, was laid out through Corinna in 1886, and the present townsite of Annandale was located at Abbyville. But when it was time for the postoffice to be established it was found that there was another Abbyville in the state. Senator Washburn was asked to suggest a suitable designation. When the request came, his eye happened to rest upon a poster advertising a theatrical engagement of Lizzie
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
grocery store and hardware, almost hid from view by large trees and brush all about them and a lumberyard started by Henry Eggerglus was the beginning of the village of Annandale. For a street there was a narrow sleigh road through the deep snow passing the two stores and extending to the railroad track where Charles McDonald was the grain dealer man for Cofield & McDonald, the grain being delivered directly from the farmer's sled into the box ears.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltThayer Hotel is built
Born hereDean Barkley is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2022Downtown
2012Annandale Minnesota 7
2012Annandale Minnesota 6
2012Annandale Minnesota 5
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (7)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (6)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (5)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (4)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (3)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (2)
2011Annandale,Minnesota,USA. - panoramio (1)Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Annandale. 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 Annandale.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Annandale’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Grew from 211 people in 1890 to 3,330 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Annandale’s Wikipedia page.
Annandale’s post office has been open since 1887.
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.
In 1886, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Annandale’s post office opened in 1887, and the census of 1890 counted 211 people here.
Annandale is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #121 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.
One place: the Thayer Hotel (listed 1978).
10% of Annandale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (13), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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), 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.
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