Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0More historic than 63% of U.S. towns · #60 of 177 in Tennessee. What drives it
Most of Louisville was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 13 buildings. Below: maps from 1936 on and the census since 1880.
The Louisville post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1851. Another post office, Mentor (1891), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Louisville is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #60 of 177 in Tennessee. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Louisville’s 38.8 sits above most of its state (81% of Tennessee towns have fewer) while its 17 historic buildings outnumber those of 79% 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 Louisville’s history is told.
Louisville’s post office has been open since 1823. Another post office, Mentor, 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Louisville.
The Louisville area was settled in the early 1800s, and its situation on the Tennessee River helped it grow into a key flatboat and steamboat port. It was incorporated in 1851. In 1974 Louisville's downtown was declared a national historic district by the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Louisville. 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 Louisville.
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.
Grew from 215 people in 1880 to 4,384 in 2020, more than tenfold.
5 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Louisville’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Louisville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Louisville post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1851.
Louisville is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #60 of 177 in Tennessee. 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings and 1 historic district, the Louisville Historic District, with 13 contributing buildings. 17 historic buildings in all.
2% of Louisville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.5 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
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