More historic than 14% of U.S. towns · #205 of 285 in Washington. What drives it
Most of Orchards was built recently: 0.4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1998. Below: maps from 1897 on and the census since 1980.
Founding year: the first Orchards post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Orchards’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orchards is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #205 of 285 in Washington. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Orchards’ 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 Orchards’ 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 (±0.4 points) is firm at this size. 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 Orchards’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Orchards was originally known as Fourth Plain. Several theories exist as to the etymology of the name, but one account states that in 1846, Dugald McTavish, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company, surveyed land near the fur trading post, Fort Vancouver. McTavish described four plains in the area of thick woods and officials at the trading post numbered the plains accordingly thus providing the name of the community. Wanting a more unique name, residents voted in 1904 to change the name to Orchards, after the many fruit trees in the area.
The Orchards post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Orchards rank for history?
Orchards is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns, #205 of 285 in Washington. 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 Orchards?
0.4% of Orchards’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1998.
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.
