Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Pickwick Mill and the Willard Bunnell House.
The Homer Township post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Bunnells Landing (1852), Minneowah (1853) and Homer (1855), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Homer Township is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns. 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 Homer Township’s 18.2 sits above most of its state (82% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 Homer Township’s history is told.
Four 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Homer Township.
Homer was platted in 1855, and named after Homer, New York. The community contained a post office from 1855 until 1965. The Willard Bunnell House, built in the 1850s by Homer's founder, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is managed as a historic house museum.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Homer Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Homer Township post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Homer Township is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns. 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.
Two places: the Pickwick Mill (listed 1970) and the Willard Bunnell House (1973).
13% of Homer Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
