Founding year: the first Kenton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Kenton’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kenton is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Kenton’s overall grade.
Tennessee towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Tennessee town has 6.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Kenton’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (16% of Tennessee 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 is a Census survey estimate (±8.5 points). 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 Kenton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Kenton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Kenton is a town in Gibson and Obion counties, Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, Kenton had a population of 1,205. The Gibson County portion of Kenton is part of the Humboldt, TN Micropolitan Statistical Area, while the Obion County portion is part of the Union City, TN–KY Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1859. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,281 to 1,205 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Kenton, 1859 to 1967
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Kenton post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Kenton rank for history?
Kenton is more historic than 30% 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.
How old are the homes in Kenton?
14% of Kenton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 (4), 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) 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.
1880
2006
2005
