Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of La Prairie was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1976. Below: maps from 1969 on and the census since 1900.
The La Prairie post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Laprairie (1890), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
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 La Prairie’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1900 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on La Prairie’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of La Prairie.
A post office was in operation at La Prairie from 1890 until 1917. The community was named after the nearby Prairie River.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of La Prairie. 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 La Prairie.
Nobody well known was born in La Prairie itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Laprairie, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The La Prairie post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, 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.
