Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #12 of 57 in Nebraska. What drives it
14 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 242 buildings between them. Below: 24 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1870.
Fremont dates its founding to 1856 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fremont is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #12 of 57 in Nebraska. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Fremont’s 92.5 sits above most of its state (86% of Nebraska towns have fewer) while its 255 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
5 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1902Lucius D. Richards
c. 1908Fremont 6a07459u-original
c. 1908Fremont c1908
1908Fremont, Neb
1908Panoramic View of Fremont, Nebraska 1908
1908Lightning
1908Fremont, Neb
1908Winter
1908The rawhide at Fremont, Nebr
1908On the island at Fremont, Nebr
1908Nye Avenue in summer
1908The depot by moonlight, at Fremont, Nebr
1908At the mouth of Elm Creek, at Fremont, Nebr
1909Fremont, Nebraska
1909Union Station, railroad yard and factoryFire 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.
1885Sheet 2 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Fremont.
From the 1830s to the 1860s, the area saw a great deal of traffic due to the Mormon Trail, which passed along the north bank of the Platte River. A ferry connected the two banks of the Elkhorn River near Fremont. It was a major overland route for emigrant settlers going to the West, the military and hunters.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveFremont, Nebraska (1867)In the archiveLucius D. Richards
In the archiveAutomobiles at Fremont Tractor Show, Aug. 9, 1916
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archive1976-01-10-Pathfinder-Explosion
In the archiveUntitled photoEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fremont. 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 Fremont.
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 Fremont’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,195 people in 1870 to 27,141 in 2020, more than tenfold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fremont’s Wikipedia page.
Fremont’s post office has been open since 1857.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1856, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Fremont’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 1870 counted 1,195 people here.
Fremont is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #12 of 57 in Nebraska. 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.
14 listings: 11 buildings, among them the Love-Larson Opera House (listed 1974, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Fremont Historic Commercial District, the Barnard Park Historic District and the North Broad Street Residential Historic District, with 242 contributing buildings. 255 historic buildings in all.
20% of Fremont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Nebraska town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 Wikimedia Commons (13), the Library of Congress (11), the National Register of Historic Places (14), Wikipedia, 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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