44 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 3 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Stevensville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Stevensville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Stevensville is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Stevensville’s overall grade.
Montana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Montana town has 12.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Stevensville’s 404 sits above most of its state (91% of Montana towns have fewer) while its 86 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% 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 (±6.2 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 →
What stands out about Stevensville’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.
1893Sheet 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 Bitterroot Valley is the ancestral homeland of the Bitterroot Salish people. Between 1812 and 1821, the Salish learned about the "powerful medicine" of Christianity and Jesuit missionaries from Iroquois fur traders. In 1831, Salish men were dispatched to St. Louis, Missouri, to request "Black Robes" for the tribe. The remaining Salish men secured a visit with St. Louis Bishop Joseph Rosati, who assured them that missionaries would be sent to the Bitterroot Valley when funds and missionaries were available in the future.
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 Stevensville post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Stevensville rank for history?
Stevensville is more historic than 75% 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 Stevensville?
44 listings: 43 buildings, among them the Fort Owen (listed 1970, the first), and 1 historic district, the St. Mary's Mission Historic District, with 3 contributing buildings. 86 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Stevensville?
18% of Stevensville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 13% for a Montana town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (7), the National Register of Historic Places (44), 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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