Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Ballard Hotel. Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1880.
The Spring Grove post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Spring Grove is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns. 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 Spring Grove’s 8.5 sits above most of its state (73% of Minnesota towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Spring Grove’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spring Grove.
A post office has been in operation at Spring Grove since 1855. The community was named for a spring and a grove near the original town site.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Spring Grove, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Spring Grove, and in the erection of its first church edifice, as well as in that of the larger and better buildings that succeeded it, and besides contributing largely to its support, he served the congregation as one of its most efficient trustees and in other capacities. Until 1895 he continued to reside on his farm, and then, feeling it time to retire from active work, he sold the place and built a comfortable residence on the Black Hammer road, half a mile from the business center of Spring Grove village, where he has since made his home. Here on Dec. 10, 1910, his wife, who had been his
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Riceford Congregation^ by Rev. H. H. Frost. In the western part of the township of Spring Grove lies the village of Riceford, receiving its name from H. M. Rice, from St. Paul, who visited the place in 1856. For a considerable time its population was mixed as to nationality. In early days the village of Riceford gave promise of becoming a town of some little importance owing to its waterpower for milling. But when the railroad, which was built through the southern part of the county, did not reach Riceford, it was obliged, like so many other inland towns, to give up
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
This is one of the Houston county villages in the town of Spring Grove; its position is on Biceford Greek, and lays mostly in the southwest quarter of section six. It is regularly laid out, and has the mill-pond on the south, from which the river curves around toward the north and skirts the village on the east. The streets running east and west, beginning at the north side of the village,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Spring Grove was organized the same year that the State was admitted into the Union, 1858, but unfortunately the records have not been preserved.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2023Northern Engraving in
2017Trinity Lutheran Church Building
2010Spring Grove, MN-10
2010Spring Grove, MN-09
2010Spring Grove, MN-08
2010Spring Grove, MN-07
2010Spring Grove, MN-06
2010Spring Grove, MN-05
2010Spring Grove, MN-04
2010Spring Grove, MN-03
2010Spring Grove, MN-02
2010Spring Grove, MN-01
2010Spring Grove Phone Booth
2010SoapboxRace
2010SoapBoxRaceFinishLine
2010Rockfilter Distillery
2009Spring Grovepl
2005MNMap-doton-Spring GroveEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Spring Grove. 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 Spring Grove.
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.
Between 293 and 1,342 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Spring Grove’s Wikipedia page.
Spring Grove’s post office has been open since 1855.
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 Spring Grove post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Spring Grove is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns. 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 Ballard Hotel (listed 2017).
36% of Spring Grove’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.7 points), against a typical 8.1% for a Minnesota town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 Wikimedia Commons (18), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
