Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Piedmont was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 11 buildings. Below: maps from 1953 on.
The Piedmont post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Postville (1881), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Piedmont is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Piedmont’s 112 sits above most of its state (89% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 11 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 Piedmont’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Piedmont.
Piedmont takes its name from a French word meaning "the foot of the mountain", because it lies on the eastern slope of the Black Hills. Piedmont was founded in 1890 and remained unincorporated for nearly 117 years. It officially became a city August 16, 2007, and elected its first town board in November 2007. The area was first inhabited in the mid-1870s.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Piedmont. 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 Piedmont.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Piedmont itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Piedmont’s post office has been open since 1890. Another post office, Postville, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Piedmont post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Piedmont is more historic than 56% 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.
One place: the Covered Wagon Resort (listed 2007).
8% of Piedmont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota town; the median home was built in 1990.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
