Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1864.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Richmond’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Richmond is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #9 of 119 in Utah. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Richmond’s overall grade.
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 Richmond’s 120 sits above most of its state (91% of Utah towns have fewer) while its 36 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% 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 (±6.2 points). Two sources give 1859.
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 →
What stands out about Richmond’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Agrippa Cooper was the first settler in Richmond in the mid-1850s. In 1859, surveyors visited the Richmond area and determined it to be a suitable area for living, with abundant water that could be used for farming and milling, and land that was fertile for growing crops. Within a few years log cabins, dugouts, and a log fort had been built. In 1860, a sawmill and a schoolhouse were erected. The city was settled mainly by Mormon pioneers, such as Thomas Levi Whittle, John Bair, Stillman Pond, Goudy E. Hogan, and Marriner W. Merrill.
In 1859, according to Wikidata. Richmond’s post office opened in 1864, and the census of 1870 counted 817 people here.
How does Richmond rank for history?
Richmond is more historic than 75% of U.S. towns, #9 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.
What is on the National Register in Richmond?
17 listings: 16 buildings, among them the Richmond Carnegie Library (listed 1984, the first), and 1 structure. 36 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Richmond?
20% of Richmond’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 2.8% for an Utah town; the median home was built in 1982.
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 Wikidata (6), the National Register of Historic Places (17), 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.
