More historic than 15% of U.S. towns · #152 of 177 in Tennessee. What drives it
Most of Munford was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 1910.
The Munford post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Mount Zion (1856), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 329 in 19102020 census: 6,302140 years
How historic is Munford?
D
More historic than 15% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Munford post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Munford’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Munford is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #152 of 177 in Tennessee. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Munford’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 Munford’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 (±2.3 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 Munford’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Beginning as a small village which grew around the Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church in the early 1850s, it was officially named "Mt. Zion" after the opening of a post office there in 1856. This office closed in 1874, and in 1886 when Mt. Zion applied to the United States Post Office Department to have it reopened, the application was approved on the condition that it do so with a new name, to avoid confusion with Mt. Zion, Pennsylvania. At that time Pennsylvania was commonly abbreviated as "Penn" and Tennessee was commonly abbreviated "Tenn." The newly appointed Post Master G. B. Sale asked his daughter Lola to choose a name, and they agreed to name it after Colonel Richard Henry Munford (1807–1884) of Covington, Tennessee. The town was officially incorporated as "Munford" by an act of the Tennessee General Assembly in 1905, and Sterling Hicks Bass Sr. was elected as its first mayor.
The Munford post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Munford rank for history?
Munford is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #152 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.
How old are the homes in Munford?
2% of Munford’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 (5), 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) 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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