Its Register listing is the George A. Marshall House. Its Register listing is the George A. Marshall House. Below: maps from 1893 on and the census since 1890.
The Arlington post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Belle Creek (1857) and Bell Creek (1880), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 412 in 18902020 census: 1,300144 years
How historic is Arlington?
B
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Arlington post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Arlington’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Arlington is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Arlington’s overall grade.
Nebraska towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Nebraska town has 16.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Arlington’s 13.6 sits near the middle of its state (55% of Nebraska 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 (±5.5 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 Arlington’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Arlington was originally called Bell Creek (after nearby Bell Creek) and under the latter name was platted in 1869 when the Sioux City and Pacific Railroad was extended to that point. Due to similarity in name with another place in Nebraska, Bell Creek was renamed Arlington, after the city of Arlington, Virginia, in 1882. Arlington was home to the Marshall Nurseries, an internationally acclaimed nursery credited with creating the Marshall seedless green ash tree (Fraxinus pennsylvanica 'Marshall'), one of the most common green ash cultivars planted in the United States.
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.
1894Sheet 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.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Arlington
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The Arlington post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Arlington rank for history?
Arlington is more historic than 59% 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 Arlington?
One place: the George A. Marshall House (listed 2018).
How old are the homes in Arlington?
20% of Arlington’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Nebraska 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 (5), Wikidata (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.
2013
2013
2013
2013
2005
