Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Galster House · Photo: Jon Roanhaus · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #32 of 285 in Washington. What drives it
Most of Port Hadlock-Irondale was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1939 on, and the census since 1980.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Port Hadlock-Irondale is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #32 of 285 in Washington. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Port Hadlock-Irondale’s 23.2 sits above most of its state (91% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 9 historic buildings outnumber those of 75% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Another post office, Irondale, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Port Hadlock-Irondale yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Port Hadlock-Irondale is a census-designated place (CDP) in Jefferson County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,983 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 3,580 to 3,983 (+11%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltGalster House is built
In the archive032 Fraser River and Port Hadlock
In the archiveBaseball team, Hadlock, Washington, ca. 1910BuiltHattie Williams House is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archivePhotocopy of photograph. TOWN OF IRONDALE, FOURTH OF JULY, 1909. (From the Robert Teagle …3 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port Hadlock-Irondale. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Port Hadlock-Irondale.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Port Hadlock-Irondale’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,752 people in 1980 to 3,983 in 2020.
5 censuses, 1980–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Port Hadlock-Irondale’s Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Port Hadlock-Irondale is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #32 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Galster House (listed 1983, the first), and 1 historic district, the Irondale Historic District, with 4 contributing buildings. 9 historic buildings in all.
7% of Port Hadlock-Irondale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.0 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1984.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.
1898
1898
1898
