Most of Red Boiling Springs was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1931 on, and the census since 1960.
Founding year: the first Red Boiling Springs post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Red Boiling Springs’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Red Boiling Springs is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Red Boiling Springs’ 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 Red Boiling Springs’ 79.2 sits above most of its state (88% of Tennessee towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% 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 (±5.0 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 Red Boiling Springs’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area was originally known as Salt Lick Creek due to a salt lick that was located approximately four miles northwest of current day Red Boiling Springs. The salt lick attracted animals, American Indians, and other people. Among the people who came to hunt the animal trails was Daniel Boone, who reportedly carved his name and the year 1775 into a beech tree in a nearby community.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Red Boiling Springs. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1931Red Boiling Springs sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Red Boiling Springs.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewCloyd Hotel, Red Boiling Springs, Tennessee (80213), c. 1930
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Red Boiling Springs’ page.
Red Boiling Springs’s post office has been open since 1847.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Smith Chapel
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Red Boiling Springs
BellCothron - GregoryWhitley
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Red Boiling Springs’ history
What year was Red Boiling Springs founded?
The Red Boiling Springs post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Red Boiling Springs rank for history?
Red Boiling Springs is more historic than 74% 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 Red Boiling Springs?
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Cloyd Hotel (listed 1986, the first), and 1 historic district, the Donoho Hotel Historic District, with 4 contributing buildings. 10 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Red Boiling Springs?
6% of Red Boiling Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
2010
2003
