Founding year: the first Gold Hill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1895.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gold Hill’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gold Hill is more historic than 72% 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 Gold Hill’s overall grade.
Oregon towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oregon town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Gold Hill’s 46.6 sits above most of its state (90% of Oregon towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% 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 (±8.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1895 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Gold Hill’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.
1898Sheet 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
4 historic places in Gold Hill
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The city's name comes from a nearby hill that was the location of a 19th-century gold discovery, on "Big Bar” on the Rogue River in the early 1850s. In 1852, Colonel William T'Vault and family made a claim, naming it Dardanelles, on the south side of the Rogue. Gold Hill became a boomtown overnight after time it became well known as pocket gold county. Seasoned prospectors specialized in placer mining from rivers, creeks, and streams. Gold Hill became world famous for its production of cement from area limestone deposits.
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 Gold Hill post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1895.
How does Gold Hill rank for history?
Gold Hill is more historic than 72% 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 Gold Hill?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Rock Point Hotel (listed 1980, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Gold Hill?
20% of Gold Hill’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.9 points), against a typical 5.3% for an Oregon town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
2021
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