Hamilton was first settled in 1877 by William Hamilton, and was later named for him when Hamilton was officially incorporated on March 19, 1891.
The town was flooded by the Skagit River in November 2021. The local post office was deemed uninhabitable due to damage from the floods and shut down despite repairs to the building. Mail and parcels bound for Hamilton are instead forwarded to the Concrete post office, located 13 miles (21 km) away, despite protests from residents. In December 2025, one of the largest floods in over 100 years caused huge evacuations. Many people of the town evacuated to Hamilton Baptist Church. The town is currently recovering.
It was a sublime moment for Hamilton when Melancthon Smith, the great leader of the Clintonians, arose in the Legislature, at the close of one of Hamilton's speeches, and acknowledged that Hamilton had converted him ; that he should vote for ratification, and he advised his party to make no further opposition. And yet such was the bitter feeling against ratification, that only a majority of four were recorded for it, which, The New York Tribune, in an editorial of September, 1887, says: "was, undoubtedly, due to the spell of Hamilton's
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He reminded Hamilton of the swarms of unworthy staff officers,, foreign and native, who were scheming with Congress and with one another in their scrambles for promotion, and argued, that to give Hamilton, (notwithstanding his experience and superior ability), an independent command over this uncanny horde, would but invite insubordination ; defy the rules of promotion as established by Congress, and, perhaps, result in his own dismissal as Commander-in-chief. This stupid theory of promotion was naturally galling to Hamilton, as well as
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Hamilton, 1877 to 1952
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hamilton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1952Hamilton sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hamilton.
Every building
Hamilton, building by building, 1912–1925
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.
1912Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewDamage done by flooding of the Skagit River to Front St., Hamilton, Washington, 1896, 1896
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hamilton’s page.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikipedia, 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.
1898
2017
2008
