Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 37% of U.S. towns · #58 of 119 in Utah. What drives it
Most of Lehi was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2007. 16 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 19 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1890.
Lehi dates its founding to 1850 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1890.
More historic than 37% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lehi is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #58 of 119 in Utah. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Utah towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Utah town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Lehi’s 4.0 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Utah towns have fewer) while its 34 historic buildings outnumber those of 82% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Lehi’s history is told.
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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1890Sheet 1 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lehi.
A group of Mormon pioneers settled the area now known as Lehi in the fall of 1850 at a place called Dry Creek in the northernmost part of Utah Valley. It was renamed Evansville in 1851 after David Evans, a local bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Other historical names include Sulphur Springs and Snow's Springs.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lehi, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Jordan River; from thence up the river Jordan to the outlet of the lake; from thence up the lake to the place of beginning, is hereby incorporated into a city, which shall be called the "City of Lehi," and the inhabitants thereof are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name aforesaid; and shall have perpetual succession, and may have and use a common seal, which they may change and alter at pleasure.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archive558 MSS P 24 B6 F5BuiltMerrihew, Harry B., Drugstore is built
BuiltJohn Y. and Emerette C. Smith House is built
BuiltJames H. and Rhoda H. Gardner House is builtBuiltChristian and Sarah Knudsen House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGas pump, old Route 892 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2015Lehi Utah photo Don Ramey Logan
2015Jordan River 2015.08.22 12.37.58 - andrey zharkikh
20152015-11-03 10 16 13 View from an airplane of the citi…
20152015-11-03 10 15 37 View from an airplane of the citi…
2012Circumhorizontal arc
2009SLCfromLakeMountain
2008The Mill Pond
2004Traverse Mountains (South Mountain), Draper and Alpin…
2004Mount Timpanogos and Utah Valley, Utah
2004Mount Timpanogos and Utah Valley, Utah
2004Mount Timpanogos and Utah Valley, Utah
2001Evans, David, born 1804, statue inEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lehi. 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 Lehi.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Lehi’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,907 people in 1890 to 75,907 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lehi’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Lehi’s post office has been open since 1904. Another post office, Lehi City, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1850, according to Wikidata. Lehi’s post office opened in 1853, and the census of 1890 counted 1,907 people here.
Lehi is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #58 of 119 in Utah. 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.
16 listings: 15 buildings, among them the Lehi City Hall (listed 1982, the first), and 1 historic district, the Lehi Main Street Historic District, with 19 contributing buildings. 34 historic buildings in all.
2% of Lehi’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 2.8% for an Utah town; the median home was built in 2007.
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 (16), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (16), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1980
1980
