Most of Durant was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1968. Its Register listing is the Durant Illinois Central Railroad Depot. Below: maps from 1886 on and the census since 1870.
Founding year: the first Durant post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Durant’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Durant is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Durant’s overall grade.
Mississippi towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Mississippi town has 71.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Durant’s 9.5 sits near the middle of its state (53% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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 (±5.0 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 Durant’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.
The Choctaw are a Native American tribe who occupied much of Mississippi as part of their territory well before any European exploration. They were among a succession of indigenous cultures established here for thousands of years. After they were forced to cede most of their land to the United States and to remove to Indian Territory in the 1830s, an increasing number of European Americans migrated here to develop the land for large cotton plantations. Before the Civil War, this was known as the "dark corner of the county."
The Durant post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Durant rank for history?
Durant is more historic than 41% 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.
What is on the National Register in Durant?
One place: the Durant Illinois Central Railroad Depot (listed 2016).
How old are the homes in Durant?
7% of Durant’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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