Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1890.
The Kimball post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Antelopeville (1882), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kimball is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 Kimball’s 44.9 sits above most of its state (79% of Nebraska towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kimball’s history is told.
Peaked at 4,384 in 1960; 2,290 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kimball’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Kimball.
Kimball was originally called Antelopeville, and under the latter name was established circa 1870 when the Union Pacific Railroad was extended to that point. It initially consisted of a telegraph and coal station with a siding and section house. It was renamed in 1885 in honor of Thomas Lord Kimball, a railroad official. Kimball was incorporated in 1888.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kimball, cut from the printed page as they were published.
United States and settled at Dunlap, in Harrison county, Iowa, where he worked for five years. In 1892, he filed on a homestead in Kimball county, Nebraska, and in the wmter of 1893, settled on his land and improved it. in 1903 trading his Kimball county property for the homestead in Banner county, on which his widow lives. In 1908, he filed on a Kim-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Mr. Vogler continued in the mercantile bus.- iness at Dix until 1895, when he was elected county clerk of Kimball county, removing then to Kimball, subsequently serving three terms in that office. At Kimball he again went into the mercantile business with a partner, B. K.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2025Original Land Office
2025Motel Kimball
2025Kimball, Nebraska road view A
2025Kimball wrong-denominal Church
2025Kimball Post Office
2025Kimball Fire Department
2025Kimball County Arboretum
2025Kimball County Arboretum front
2025Kimball Community Arboretum sign
2025Kim Bowl alt
2025First Baptist Church
2025Downtown Kimball A
2021Bigboy 4014 making a whistle stop at
2020Kimball well
2020High Plains Co-op grain
2020Downtown
2010Kimball, Nebraska RR underpass
2010Kimball, Nebraska Chestnut from RR overpass
2010Kimball, Nebraska Chestnut from 3rd 3
2010Kimball, Nebraska Chestnut from 3rd 2
2010Kimball, Nebraska Chestnut from 3rd 1
2010Kimball NE WV Pagebanner
2008Kimball, Nebraska Main Street
2005NEMap-doton-KimballEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kimball. 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 Kimball.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Kimball’s post office has been open since 1885. Another post office, Antelopeville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Kimball post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kimball is more historic than 79% 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.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Fraternal Hall (listed 1983, the first). 10 historic buildings in all.
33% of Kimball’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.7 points), against a typical 18% for a Nebraska town; the median home was built in 1953.
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 (24), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
