Founding year: the first Le Sueur post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Le Sueur’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Le Sueur is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #45 of 273 in Minnesota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Le Sueur’s overall grade.
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 Le Sueur’s 14.2 sits above most of its state (80% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Le Sueur’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
Le Sueur was named its current name in 1853 by the community there at the time after explorer Pierre-Charles Le Sueur, who explored this area from 1683 to 1722. Before this, the area was known by the French as Prairie la Fleche, or "arrow prairie". This place name is believed to originate from a translation of the native Dakota name for the area, Wahinoge, or "flint quary", a material used to make arrowheads.
The Le Sueur post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Le Sueur rank for history?
Le Sueur is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #45 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.
What is on the National Register in Le Sueur?
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Dr. William W. Mayo House (listed 1969, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Le Sueur?
23% of Le Sueur’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1964.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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