Founding year: the first Cathcart post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Cathcart’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cathcart is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cathcart’s overall grade.
Few Washington towns list much on the Register (a typical Washington town has 0.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cathcart’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (27% of Washington 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 is a Census survey estimate (±9.6 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 Cathcart’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cathcart yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cathcart is a census-designated place (CDP) in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. The population was 2,647 at the 2020 census, up from 2,458 at the 2010 census. Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Cathcart ranks 45th of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. Cathcart was named for Isaac Cathcart, a lumberman, entrepreneur, and Snohomish County pioneer.
Its first post office opened in 1915. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,458 to 2,647 (+8%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Cathcart in 1926
Passages that mention Cathcart, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Snohomish County, Washington, Volume I1926 · page 199Read the page →
Read the text
without aid and in June, 1895, a delegation visited the board and asked the aid of the board to complete this road and also to open a road from Fiddlers Bluff to Cathcart, tendering the use of a portable sawmill to cut the plank needed. This offer was accepted, the road to Machias was finished and the road to Cathcart was planked before the end of 1896. In the vicinity of Arlington the people showed their enterprise by the erection of a very unique foot-bridge across the south fork of the Stillaguamish at the F. B. Davis place. This was a suspension bridge, constructed out of a second-hand trolley wire. The commissioners established a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Snohomish County, Washington, Volume I1926 · page 193Read the page →
Read the text
from Snohomish to Stanwood, via Ebey Slough and the Tulalip reservation, to begin at Avenue D, Snohomish, on the established road to Tulalip, thence to the Adams telegraph station, then across the flats to Stanwood. This road was established the following May, although $800 had to be paid Isaac Cathcart for damages, and E. D. Smith was appointed to let contracts for a road thirty feet wide, and to build the necessary bridges. The project was nipped in the bud, however, when the Indian agent, who was greatly opposed to any encroachments by the whites, refused to permit bridges to be built in the reservation. At this same May session the peti-
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.
Timeline
Cathcart, 1915 to 1944
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Cathcart post office opened in 1915, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cathcart rank for history?
Cathcart is more historic than 24% 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.
How old are the homes in Cathcart?
17% of Cathcart’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.6 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 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 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.
