Most of Kimball was built recently: 0.9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Below: maps from 1936 on and the census since 1970.
Founding year: the first Kimball post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Kimball’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kimball is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Kimball’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 Kimball’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 still be D. The pre-1940 share (±0.9 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 Kimball’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Kimball was founded in 1890 as a model industrial city by Hannibal Kimball, with support of the British Anglo-American Company, Limited. The location was chosen to be similar to another planned city, Colorado Springs.
It was backed by mountains, with three miles of frontage on the Tennessee River and rail connections on the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway.
The town suffered damage after it was struck by an EF 2 tornado on November 14, 2007. The storm left nine injured, along a damage path of approximately two miles in length.
The Kimball post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Kimball rank for history?
Kimball is more historic than 13% 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 Kimball?
0.9% of Kimball’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 Wikipedia, 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.
