Founding year: the first Hood River post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1895.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hood River’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hood River is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns, #31 of 142 in Oregon. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hood River’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 Hood River’s 28.7 sits above most of its state (86% of Oregon towns have fewer) while its 24 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.4 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 Hood River’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Hood River, building by building, 1893–1916
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.
1893Sheet 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.
Famous people
18 famous people were born in Hood River
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Hood River (originally called Dog River) post office was established (named by Mary Coe, who founded the city with her husband Nathaniel Coe) at the site of the present city on September 30, 1868,
and the city itself was incorporated in 1895. Originally, the city was part of Wasco County, but it became the seat of Hood River County when the county was first established in 1908.
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 Hood River post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1895.
How does Hood River rank for history?
Hood River is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns, #31 of 142 in Oregon. 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 Hood River?
23 listings: 23 buildings, among them the Columbia Gorge Hotel (listed 1979, the first). 24 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Hood River?
15% of Hood River’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 5.3% for an Oregon town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (7), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (23), 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.
c. 1923
2025
2009
