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History · Coates

Coates’ post office opened in 1904, and 36% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1957 on and the census since 1960.

1904first post office
0on the National Register
36%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Coates began

When was Coates founded?

1904

The Coates post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 202 in 19602020 census: 147122 years
Founding year: the first Coates post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Coates’ 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 Coates are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Coates’ homes were built before 1950.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Coates’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Coates’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

Coates, in brief

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

Coates is a town in the U.S. state of Minnesota located west of the Upper Mississippi River on the exurban fringe in central Dakota County. U.S. Highway 52 connects north to the city of Saint Paul, while County Road 46 draws east–west to nearby suburban cities. As of the 2020 census, Coates had a population of 147. It is named for Civil War Captain Henry C. Coates who served in the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Major employers are in trucking, moving and recycling services. The city is popular among people from the Twin Cities for the House of Coates, a burger restaurant opened in 1962. St. Agatha's Catholic Church serves as city hall. Originally a rural post office hub in the 1900s, th…

Its first post office opened in 1904. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 161 to 147 (-9%).

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

Timeline

Coates, 1904 to 1957

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1904Post officeThe Coates post office opens
  3. 1920Post officeThe Coates post office closes
  4. 1957On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Coates on the map, 1957 to 1993

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

Coates on the 1957 USGS mapCoates on the 1974 USGS mapCoates on the 1993 USGS map1957Farmington 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 Coates.

People over time

Coates, census by census

01002001960198020002020Peak: 212

Between 147 and 212 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Coates

Nobody well known was born in Coates itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Seann William ScottAmerican actor · b. 1976
A
Ann BancroftAmerican explorer · b. 1955
Cole AldrichAmerican basketball player · b. 1988
Derek StepanAmerican ice hockey player · b. 1990
Tyus JonesAmerican basketball player · b. 1996
J
Justin FaulkAmerican ice hockey defenseman · b. 1992
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Coates had its own post office from 1904 to 1920.

Coates
1904–1920
19001960today
Gone or out of use
Coates Post Officepost office

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.

RosemountIts storyC−Vermillion TownshipIts storyC+EmpireIts storyD

Questions about Coates’ history

What year was Coates founded?

The Coates post office opened in 1904, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.