Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns · #136 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
Most of Corcoran was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the District No. 107 School. Below: maps from 1909 on and the census since 1860.
Corcoran dates its founding to 1855 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Corcoran is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #136 of 273 in Minnesota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Corcoran’s 4.1 sits near the middle of its state (60% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% 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 Corcoran’s history is told.
Corcoran had its own post office from 1863 to 1903. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Corcoran. 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 Corcoran.
From Wikipedia’s history of Corcoran.
Corcoran was settled in 1855, and was organized on May 11, 1858. The city it is 1921 Patrick B. Corcoran, the first schoolteacher, merchant, and postmaster of the town. Patrick B. Corcoran was originally from Ireland, but moved to the United States in 1847, and to Hennepin County in 1855. The city of Corcoran was incorporated on December 4, 1948.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Corcoran, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of Corcoran is in the northwestern part of Hennepin Coun¬ ty. It embraces an entire government township of land, being, by land office designation, township 119, of range 23, west of the fifth principal meridian.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The township of Corcoran is located in the north-western part of Hennepin county, and is boxmded on the north by Hassan, east by Maple Grove, south by Medina and west by Greenwood.
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.
BuiltDistrict No. 107 School is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe 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 358 people in 1860 to 6,185 in 2020, more than tenfold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Corcoran’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Corcoran itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1855, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Corcoran’s post office opened in 1863, and the census of 1860 counted 358 people here.
Corcoran is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #136 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 District No. 107 School (listed 2018).
5% of Corcoran’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.1 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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