Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1854.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Anoka’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Anoka is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #40 of 273 in Minnesota. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Anoka’s overall grade.
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 Anoka’s 4.5 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 8 listings outnumber those of 74% 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 (±2.6 points) is firm at this size. Two sources give 1844.
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 Anoka’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Colonists first settled the site that is now Anoka in 1844. By the mid-1850s, Anoka had a school, a store and a flour mill. In 1856, C. C. Andrews called it a "large and handsome village" and noted that pine logs were floated down the Rum River to sawmills there. The city was formally incorporated in 1878. The name Anoka may derive from two Indian words. Santee Dakota used anoka, meaning "on both sides" or "from both sides", referring to its location on both banks of the Rum River. Ojibwe used anoki, meaning "I work", referring to the town's busy local lumber sites.
Passages that mention Anoka, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota1905 · page 121Read the page →
Read the text
Two abortive attempts were made to incorporate the City of Anoka. The first act authorizing; incorporation was passed by the legislature in 1858, but the chartuwas rejected by popular vote. A charter authorized by act of March 5, 1869, met with a like fate, and it was not until March 2, 1878, that the city was set off from the township of the same name.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Anoka County and the towns of Champlin and Dayton in Hennepin County, Minnesota1905 · page 226Read the page →
Read the text
Brunswick. After leaving school he worked as a lumberman and has followed that occupation continuously until the present time, having had logging crews in the Minnesota pineries for many years. He came to Minnesota in 1852, and to Anoka county in October of that year. He has served as alderman of the city of Anoka six years, and is president of the State Bank of Anoka. Mr. Goss was married June 22, 1851, to Irena Davis.
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
Anoka, 1844 to 2002
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.
In 1844, according to Wikidata. Anoka’s post office opened in 1854, and the census of 1880 counted 2,706 people here.
How does Anoka rank for history?
Anoka is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #40 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 Anoka?
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Jackson Hotel (listed 1978, the first), and 1 structure.
How old are the homes in Anoka?
11% of Anoka’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.6 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota 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 (14), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (8), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
2011
2011
2010
2009
2009
2008
2008
2008
2008
2005
