Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns · #35 of 119 in Utah. What drives it
Most of Millcreek was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. 13 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 641 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1925 on, and the census since 1990.
The Millcreek post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 2016. Another post office, Mill Creek (1857), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Millcreek is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #35 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 Millcreek’s 104 sits above most of its state (90% of Utah towns have fewer) while its 660 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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 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.
Another post office, Mill Creek, 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Millcreek’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Millcreek.
Early settlers of the Millcreek area in 1848 included Mary Fielding Smith (widow of Hyrum Smith) and her children, including Joseph F. Smith. The area remained essentially rural in character until after World War II. As postwar suburban growth spilled south over the Salt Lake City limits, the area was not annexed by the city and remained unincorporated.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltRobert Jr. Gardner House is built
In the archiveEB9 Salt Lake CityBuiltHawarden is builtBuiltNathaniel Baldwin House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltErnie and Irmgard Bourne House is builtOne decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Millcreek. 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 Millcreek.
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 Millcreek’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 30,377 and 63,380 people in every census since 1990.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Millcreek’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Millcreek post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 2016.
Millcreek is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #35 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.
13 listings: 11 buildings, among them the Edward Pugh House (listed 1978, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Evergreen Avenue Historic District and the Mountair Acres Subdivision Historic District, with 641 contributing buildings. 660 historic buildings in all.
3% of Millcreek’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 2.8% for an Utah town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (8), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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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