Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1880.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Redfield’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Redfield is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Redfield’s overall grade.
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 Redfield’s 30.2 sits near the middle of its state (64% of South Dakota towns have fewer) while its 6 listings 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 (±6.9 points). Two sources give 1880.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Redfield’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 3,027 in 1980; 2,214 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Redfield’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Redfield, building by building, 1884–1910
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.
1884Sheet 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
6 historic places in Redfield
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
The first settlers arrived in the Redfield area in 1878, and a post office was established two years later under the name "Stennett Junction." The "Redfield" name was adopted in 1881. The town became the seat of Spink County in 1886, following a six-year legal and political battle among several Spink County towns. Redfield rapidly became a major town in the region, due in part to its status as a railroad center—the town was a crossroads of two lines of the Chicago and North Western Railway, and was also served by the Milwaukee Road Railroad. Railroads brought supplies, people, and animals, and also provided for transportation of crops back East.
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.
In 1880, according to Wikidata. Redfield’s post office opened in 1880, and the census of 1890 counted 796 people here.
How does Redfield rank for history?
Redfield is more historic than 76% 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 Redfield?
6 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Redfield Carnegie Library (listed 1978, the first).
How old are the homes in Redfield?
37% of Redfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.9 points), against a typical 10% for a South Dakota 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 Library of Congress (7), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.
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