Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #46 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 10 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1880.
The Brainerd post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brainerd is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #46 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 Brainerd’s 10.4 sits above most of its state (77% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 15 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Brainerd’s history is told.
The 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Brainerd.
The area that is now Brainerd was formerly Ojibwe territory. Brainerd was first seen by European settlers on Christmas Day in 1805, when Zebulon Pike stopped there while searching for the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Crow Wing Village, a fur and logging community near Fort Ripley, brought settlers to the area in the mid-19th century.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSwedish Baptist Church, Brainerd, Minnesota - DPLA - ef3868f9123ce22b8652b8a72cc40a5dBuiltBrainerd Public Library is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltBrainerd Water Tower is built
In the archiveBrainerd MN - 1922
In the archivePaul Bunyan Scenic Byway - Child and Paul Bunyan3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brainerd. 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 Brainerd.
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 sheet.
1889Sheet 1 of 9Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Brainerd’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,865 people in 1880 to 14,395 in 2020, 7 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brainerd’s Wikipedia page.
Brainerd’s post office has been open since 1870.
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.
The Brainerd post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Brainerd is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #46 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.
7 listings: 5 buildings, 1 historic district, the Northern Pacific Railroad Shops Historic District, with 10 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 15 historic buildings in all.
21% of Brainerd’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2006