Moorhead’s post office opened in 1871, and 12 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 45% of U.S. towns · #118 of 273 in Minnesota. What drives it
Most of Moorhead was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Moorhead post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Moorhead’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Moorhead is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns, #118 of 273 in Minnesota. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Moorhead’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 Moorhead’s 2.9 sits near the middle of its state (57% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 13 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B−. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 points) is firm at this size. 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 Moorhead’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.
The city was platted in 1871 and named for William Galloway Moorhead, a Northern Pacific Railway official and brother-in-law of financier Jay Cooke.
Early on, Moorhead had a reputation as a sin city; since alcohol was prohibited in North Dakota, residents of Fargo and other cities came to Moorhead to drink. In a September 1933 referendum, Clay County voted to reject the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, a vote that made it a dry county according to Minnesota law. In April 1937, Clay County voted to allow alcohol sales, with almost half the affirmative votes coming from Moorhead voters.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Moorhead post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Moorhead rank for history?
Moorhead is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns, #118 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 Moorhead?
12 listings: 12 buildings, among them the Solomon Gilman Comstock House (listed 1974, the first). 13 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Moorhead?
7% of Moorhead’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1983.
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 (15), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (12), 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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