Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #56 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 36 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1887 on, and old-book passages.
The Litchfield post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Litchfield is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #56 of 273 in Minnesota. 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 Litchfield’s 62.3 sits above most of its state (95% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 41 historic buildings outnumber those of 84% 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.
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.
1887Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Litchfield.
Litchfield Township was originally called Ness Township, for settler Ole Halvorson Ness, and under the latter name was organized in 1858. The present name, adopted circa 1869, is after its largest settlement, Litchfield.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Litchfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
hats, caps and notions. Mr. Brown has only held local offices; has been twice town treasurer. He served as first town clerk, when Litchfield was part of the incorporated town of Ness, and after being changed to town of Litchfield. He also served one year as president of the village council, and two years later as trustee on the village council.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
JOHN ESBJORNSSON is one of the most prominent lumber merchants, and is also one of the first settlers of Litchfield. He arrived at Litchfield on the 28th of June, 1869, coming as far as Smith Lake, then the end of the railroad, on a train, anil walking from there to Litchfield. At tiiat time the site of the village only contained one black-
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.
BuiltBrightwood Beach Cottage is built
In the archiveOpera House
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Litchfield. 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 Litchfield.
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 Litchfield’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Litchfield itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Litchfield’s post office has been open since 1869.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Litchfield post office opened in 1869, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Litchfield is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #56 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Grand Army of the Republic Hall (listed 1975, the first), and 1 historic district, the Litchfield Commercial Historic District, with 36 contributing buildings. 41 historic buildings in all.
12% of Litchfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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