Founding year: the first Steele post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Steele’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Steele is more historic than 19% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Steele’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 Steele’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 still be C−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.2 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 →
The Steele post office was in operation from 1896 to 2017. The community was named for Leonidas Lucilius Steele, an early settler who came to Pemiscot County in 1874 and moved to Steele in 1885, where he operated a hotel and mercantile business. The city's early growth was due to it being the only way for people and freight to cross the Little River Swamp to reach Cottonwood Point and the Mississippi River. The community was a point along the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway. In 1912, Steele contained seven general stores, three cotton gins, a sawmill and a gristmill.
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 Steele post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Steele rank for history?
Steele is more historic than 19% 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 Steele?
4% of Steele’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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