Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Martin T. Gunderson House. Its Register listing is the Martin T. Gunderson House. Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1920 on and old-book passages.
The Kenyon post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kenyon is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 Kenyon’s 5.5 sits near the middle of its state (64% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Kenyon’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Kenyon yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,815 to 1,894 (+4%).
Passages that mention Kenyon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
population of the township was largely Norwegian, and that of the village American, but at the present time Americans of Norwegian descent or birth predominate throughout both town and village. Aside from the village of Kenyon, there are two stations in the township, both on the line of the Chicago and Great Western. They are Bakko and Skyberg.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in one of the handsomest residences in the village of Kenyon, is the fifth child of Stephen and Anna (Brill) Bullis, who were among the earliest pioneers in this part of the county. He was "born at Clarenceville. Canada, near the Vermont line, in 1848, and there lived as a boy until coming west with his parents in 1855. The family located for one winter in Hastings, and in March. 1856, came to Kenyon, where the father took up a quarter section of government land in section 24, near the village, where
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
As nearly all those who first settled in Kenyon township have disappeared, we have found it very difficult to obtain correct data of the early settlement, hence our sketch must necessarily be brief.
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Kenyon’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Kenyon’s post office has been open since 1856.
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 Kenyon post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kenyon is more historic than 73% 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.
One place: the Martin T. Gunderson House (listed 1975).
44% of Kenyon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1954.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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