Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1891.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Clear Lake’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Clear Lake is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Clear Lake’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 Clear Lake’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 C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±13.2 points). Two sources give 1890.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Clear Lake’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
One large cedar plank house called sq̓əxʷšəd was home to several families of the dəqʷə́čabʔs band of Upper Skagit during the 1880s a smallpox epidemic wiped out most of the villages on the south side of the Skagit river including those living in sq̓əxʷšəd.
Clear Lake was platted in 1890 when the railroad was extended to that point. A post office called Clearlake has been in operation since 1891. A museum is located in the former Odd Fellows Hall on State Route 9 in Clear Lake.
In 1890, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Clear Lake’s post office opened in 1891, and the census of 2000 counted 942 people here.
How does Clear Lake rank for history?
Clear Lake is more historic than 51% 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 Clear Lake?
33% of Clear Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±13.2 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1959.
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 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.
