Most of Purdy was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Its Register listing is the Purdy Bridge. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1942 on.
Founding year: the first Purdy post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Purdy’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Purdy is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Purdy’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 Purdy’s 7.4 sits above most of its state (81% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 (±2.7 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 Purdy’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Prior to white settlement, the area was inhabited by Native Americans, who fished and clammed on Henderson Bay.
In 1884, one Isaac Hawk sold 19 acres (77,000 m2) of land for $23.75 (equivalent to $851 in 2025). The purchaser was logger and Civil War veteran Horace Knapp (born March 23, 1845, in Titusville, Pennsylvania; died February 1, 1913, in Gig Harbor, Washington), who subdivided the land into lots and blocks to form the town of Purdy. The town's naming rights were taken by Joseph W. Purdy, a grocer from Tacoma, Washington, who had donated the materials to construct the community's first schoolhouse; the schoolhouse's land was donated by Knapp.
The Purdy post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Purdy rank for history?
Purdy is more historic than 34% 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.
What is on the National Register in Purdy?
One place: the Purdy Bridge (listed 1982).
How old are the homes in Purdy?
2% of Purdy’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1993.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
Date?
2023
2016
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