The story
Read it all →How Brandon came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Brandon.
A post office called Brandon has been in operation since 1878. The city took its name from Brandon Township.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
C−History
History · Brandon
Brandon’s post office opened in 1878
More historic than 17% of U.S. towns · #29 of 35 in South Dakota. What drives it
Most of Brandon was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: maps from 1962 on and the census since 1950.
1878first post office
0on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Quick answers
How Brandon began
When was Brandon founded?
1878
The Brandon post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 200 in 19502020 census: 11,048148 years
How historic is Brandon?
C−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 17% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Brandon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Brandon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brandon is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #29 of 35 in South Dakota. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brandon’s overall grade.
Founding era1878, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19403.0% of homes (±1.7) · typical SD town 10.4% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical SD town 37.3 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 17%
NewerOlder
South Dakota towns of 2,500+ (35)Ahead of 18%
South Dakota towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Dakota town has 37.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Brandon’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (15% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±1.7 points) is firm at this size. 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 Brandon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Brandon’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Brandon’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Brandon in 1899
Passages that mention Brandon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Minnehaha county, South Dakota. Containing an account of its settlements, growth, development and resources ... Synopsis of public records, biographical sketches ..1899 · page 800Read the page →
Read the text
The township of Brandon, owing to its proximity to Sioux Falls, was one of the earliest settled townships in the county. The soil is g-ood, and streams of water at the time of the gfovernment survey in 1864, were flowing over twent\'-seven sections of land. The principal stream, the Big Sioux river, enters the township in the northwest portion of section 31, flowing thence northeasterly about three-fourths of a mile to the center of section 30, thence southeasterly through section 29, to the center of the south line of section
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Minnehaha county, South Dakota. Containing an account of its settlements, growth, development and resources ... Synopsis of public records, biographical sketches ..1899 · page 148Read the page →
Read the text
Brandon, the next station, was reached on the 15th day of July, althouo-h considerable g-radinghad been done on the line west of that place, (^n Thursday, Aug-ust 1, 1878, the first train with passeng-ers in charge of Peter Becker, conductor, reached Sioux Falls between twelve and 1 o'clock in the afternoon, to be accurate, 12:40. A few g-entlemen from Sioux Palls met this train at Brandon and decorated the engfine with flag-s and streamers, and when the train reached its destination it was g-reeted by a band of music, led by T. H. Brown,
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
Brandon, 1878 to 1988
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1878Post officeThe Brandon post office opens
- 20th century
- 1962
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 1988
Born hereDale Moss is born here
By decade
Brandon, decade by decade
2016
2016
2015
2015
2004On the map
Brandon on the map, 1962 to 1985
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brandon. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1962Brandon sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Brandon.
People over time
Brandon, census by census
Grew from 200 people in 1950 to 11,048 in 2020, more than tenfold.
8 censuses, 1950–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brandon’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Brandon
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Brandon’s history
What year was Brandon founded?
The Brandon post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Brandon rank for history?
Brandon is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #29 of 35 in South Dakota. 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.
How old are the homes in Brandon?
3% of Brandon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.7 points), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota town; the median home was built in 2001.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 (5), 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.