Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns · #67 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Church of St. Boniface. Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1890.
The Melrose post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Melrose is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #67 of 273 in Minnesota. 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 Melrose’s 5.4 sits near the middle of its state (64% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings 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 Melrose’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1930, then more than doubled.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Melrose’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Melrose yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Melrose is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,602 at the 2020 census. It is part of the St. Cloud metropolitan area.
Its first post office opened in 1859. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 3,598 in 2010, 3,602 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Melrose, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Melrose Township. — The first school in the township of Melrose was taught in what is now District Number 41, more generally known as the Stewart school, situated about three miles west of the city of Melrose. This district was organized in 1861, the school officers being Messrs.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
is noted, inarching with Sherman through Georgia, and taking part in the Grand Review at Washington. He was mustered out at Madison, Wis., in July, 1865, and returned to his home. Some two years later he took a trip to Iowa for a short time. In 1869 he came to Melrose in this county, and spent some twenty-one years as a grader of wheat for the Clark interests. In the meantime he had acquired eighty acres adjoining the village of Melrose. This he worked for several years. He now lives in the village, where he is respected and honored as a leading citizen. For a number of years he was a
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.
Born herePaul Ellering is born hereBorn hereMark Olberding is 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 Melrose. 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 Melrose.
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.
Melrose’s post office has been open since 1859.
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 Melrose post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Melrose is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #67 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.
One place: the Church of St. Boniface (listed 1993).
21% of Melrose’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.0 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1970.
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
