Founding year: the first Concordia post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Concordia’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Concordia is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Concordia’s overall grade.
Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Concordia’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 is a Census survey estimate (±9.0 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 Concordia’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.
1886Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
On the map
Concordia on the map, 1917 to 1981
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Concordia. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1917Knobnoster sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Concordia.
Concordia was platted in 1868. The city was named after a place mentioned in the poem "Das Lied von der Glocke" by Friedrich Schiller. A post office called Concordia has been in operation since 1865.
A large share of the early settlers were Germans. Among these immigrants were ancestors of scientist Linus Pauling. In 1842, Christoph Friedrich Pauling, his wife Catharine and their daughters Rebecca and Charlotte immigrated to the United States from Hanover, with a son being born while they were crossing the Atlantic; they travelled to "a German settlement in Concordia, Missouri", near where they farmed; a second son was born in 1844 and their third and final son, Charles Henry (grandfather of Linus Pauling) was born in 1847.
Passages that mention Concordia, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Young's history of Lafayette County, Missouri1910 · page 189Read the page →
Read the text
The Concordia church is a German organization, situated in the beautiful little town of its name. It was formed July 13, 1851. Their first church house was built in 1864, two and a half miles southeast of Concordia. The present building, in town, was built in 1889. They also have a good parsonage, and the church property is valued at seven thousand five hundred dollars.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Young's history of Lafayette County, Missouri1910 · page 353Read the page →
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The second attempt at town-building in Freedom township was when, in 1868, the town of Concordia was platted, by a joint stock company, consisting of Major G. P. Gordon, Henry Detert, Col. George S. Rathburn, Peter and Harmon Uphouse and Henry Westerhouse. It is situated twentyfive miles to the southeast of Lexington, on the Lexington and Sedalia branch of the Missouri Pacific railroad, and on section 4, township 48, range 24.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Concordia Historical Institute quarterly1928 · page 69Read the page →
Read the text
served as organist of Concordia Seminary from 1902 to 1905, of Immanuel College from 1905 to 1912, and of Grace Church, River Forest, from December, 1922, to February, 1943. He played his last two church services on Dec. 3, 1944, at the Church of St. Luke, Chicago, as festival organist for the 25th anniversary services of his nephew and former protégé at River Forest, Herbert D.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Concordia Historical Institute quarterly1928 · page 34Read the page →
Read the text
Trinity-Church, Evansville, Ind., 1915 to 1925, when he was called to the chair of church history at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. Valparaiso University gave him the degree of Doctor of Letters in 1942. He is chairman of the Intersynodical Committee on Hymnology and Liturgics, was secretary and acting curator of the Institute, and former editor of the Concordia Junior Messenger.
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.
Timeline
Concordia, 1865 to 1917
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Between 391 and 2,450 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Concordia’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Concordia’s post office has been open since 1865.
Gone or out of use
Saint Pauls Collegeschool
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Concordia’s history
What year was Concordia founded?
The Concordia post office opened in 1865, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Concordia rank for history?
Concordia is more historic than 38% 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.
How old are the homes in Concordia?
19% of Concordia’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.0 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 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, 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.
