Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 45% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1883 on, and the census since 1880.
The Slater post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 45% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Slater is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Slater’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.
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 Slater’s history is told.
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.
1883Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Peaked at 3,797 in 1920; 1,834 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Slater’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Slater.
Slater was laid out in 1889. A post office called Slater has been in operation since 1878. The community has the name of John F. Slater, a railroad official.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Slater, cut from the printed page as they were published.
WITNESSETH, That the said John Jones, in consideration of the agreement of the partj' of the second part, hereinafter contained, contracts and agrees to and with the said Thomas Whiteside, that he will deliver in good and marketable condition, at the village of Slater, Missouri, during the month of November, of this year, one hundred tons of prairie hay, in the following lots, and at the following specified times, namely: Twenty-five tons by the seventh of November, twenty-five tons additional by the fourteenth of the month, twenty-five tons more by the twenty-first, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Besides many tasteful and pleasant residences — most of them yet of wood — Slater has three churches, an extensive flouring mill and elevator, a fine three-story brick hotel, finely furnished, one brick banking house and bank, ten brick stores, two newspapers, one brick livery stable, and numerous frame business houses. As is usual in all new railroad towns, the population of Slater is a mixed one. Business men are there from every part of the Union; but its business men are live, energetic and enterprising, and the little city has before it a brilliant future.
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 hereRobert Davis Johnson is born here
Born hereGerald C. Thomas is born here
In the archiveExcavating for new reservoir at Slater, Mo
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereCindy Holscher is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Slater. 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 Slater.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Slater’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Slater’s post office has been open since 1878.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Slater post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Slater is more historic than 45% 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.
26% of Slater’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 the Library of Congress (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.
