Pleasant Hill’s post office opened in 1837, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns · #38 of 247 in Missouri. What drives it
Most of Pleasant Hill was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 53 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1883 on, and the census since 1870.
Founding year: the first Pleasant Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Pleasant Hill’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pleasant Hill is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #38 of 247 in Missouri. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Pleasant Hill’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 Pleasant Hill’s 59.9 sits above most of its state (88% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 53 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.7 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 Pleasant Hill’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Pleasant Hill, building by building, 1883–1913
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.
Pleasant Hill was platted in 1844 by William Wright and was recorded as the "Original Town of Pleasant Hill." Wright and Methodist circuit rider William Ferrell operated a mercantile store. The original location was on a ridge near Pleasant Hill Cemetery. The community was named after its "pleasant situation on an elevated prairie". Wright also operated a 3-story tavern that was marked by a 12-foot high beacon atop a pole. It was an overnight stop for stagecoaches between Lexington, Missouri and Fort Scott, Kansas.
Passages that mention Pleasant Hill, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cass County, Missouri1917 · page 209Read the page →
Read the text
To counteract the influence of the construction of the Holden-Paola road, the people at Pleasant Hill, in 1870, projected the building of a railroad from Chappel Hill, in Lafayette County, by way of Pleasant Hill to Austin, north and south through the county, leaving Harrisonville six miles to the west of the route of this road. To this township sub¬ scriptions from Pleasant Hill and Austin townships were procured. In 1871, the adherents of Harrisonville procured a subscription of $300,000 “to the aid in the construction of a railroad from Kansas City to Clinton
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
Pleasant Hill, 1837 to 1989
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pleasant Hill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Pleasant Hill sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pleasant Hill.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewBird's eye view of the city of Pleasant Hill, Cass Co., Missouri 1869, 1869
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Pleasant Hill’s page.
Pleasant Hill’s post office has been open since 1837.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Wyoming
Gone or out of use
White Cloud Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Pleasant Hill
Pleasant Hill
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Pleasant Hill’s history
What year was Pleasant Hill founded?
The Pleasant Hill post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Pleasant Hill rank for history?
Pleasant Hill is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #38 of 247 in Missouri. 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 Pleasant Hill?
One place: the Pleasant Hill Downtown Historic District (listed 2005).
How old are the homes in Pleasant Hill?
8% of Pleasant Hill’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1993.
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 (5), 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, 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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