Founding year: the first Madeira post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Madeira’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Madeira is more historic than 43% of U.S. towns, #728 of 993 in Ohio. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Madeira’s overall grade.
Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Madeira’s 1.1 sits near the middle of its state (49% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 (±4.4 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 Madeira’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Madeira was largely laid out in 1871. Before this time the place was known as a post town, and was named for John Madeira who owned a large tract of land in the vicinity.
Madeira was incorporated as a village under the statutes of the State of Ohio in 1910. The village was protected by a series of elected marshals and appointed deputy marshals until 1942 when Madeira's first Chief of Police was appointed.
Madeira gained city status in August 1959. The city nearly doubled in area with the 1970 annexation of the South Kenwood area of Columbia Township.
In August 1969, a violent F3 tornado hit Madeira, killing four people and causing more than $3 million in damages. Later, Mayor Dan McDonald declared the city a disaster area.
Passages that mention Madeira, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio1894Read the page →
Read the text
This road is also widely famed for its superior suburban service, extending forty miles out to Blanchester. The line follows Mill creek, through the West End to Winton Place, traverses Duck Creek Valley, passing through the villages of Bond Hill, Norwood, Oakley, and Madisonville to the Heights of Madeira; down the valley of the Little Miami to Allendale, Remington and Symmes, crossing the river at Loveland, and thence over the table land to Blanchester. The company’s management shows great liberality in promoting the settlement of these suburbs, and offers
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio1894 · page 291Read the page →
Read the text
This road is also widely famed for its superior suburban service, extending forty miles out to Blanchester. The line follows Mill creek, through the West End to Winton Place, traverses Duck Creek Valley, passing through the villages of Bond Hill, Norwood, Oakley, and Madisonville to the Heights of Madeira; down the valley of the Little Miami to Allendale, Remington and Symmes, crossing the river at Loveland, and thence over the table land to Blanchester. The company’s management shows great liberality in promoting the settlement of these suburbs, and offers Digitized by Google
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.
Timeline
Madeira, 1867 to 1957
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Madeira post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Madeira rank for history?
Madeira is more historic than 43% of U.S. towns, #728 of 993 in Ohio. 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 Madeira?
One place: the Madeira Railroad Depot (listed 2022).
How old are the homes in Madeira?
11% of Madeira’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1960.
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 (2), 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 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.
2009
2009