Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 19% of U.S. towns · #188 of 285 in Washington. What drives it
Most of Spokane Valley was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. Its Register listing is the Opportunity Township Hall. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1949 on, and the census since 2000.
Spokane Valley first appears in the census in 2000. Ten smaller post offices, Hangmans Creek (1873), Alpha (1881) and Trent (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 19% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Spokane Valley is more historic than 19% of U.S. towns, #188 of 285 in Washington. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Spokane Valley ranks #347 on History.
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 Spokane Valley’s 0.1 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
11 other post offices 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Spokane Valley’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spokane Valley.
The City of Spokane Valley incorporated on March 31, 2003. At its creation, it was the third-largest newly incorporated city in US history (after Centennial, Colorado, which incorporated in 2001; and Miami Gardens, Florida, which incorporated about five weeks before Spokane Valley).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Spokane Valley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
generally believed that on account of the gravelly nature of the soil throughout the Spokane valley irrigation was impracticable on any basis of expectation of profit. On the -ith of April, 1901, W. L. Benham, a retired railroad man, filed articles of incorporation of the Spokane Valley Land & Water Company; and after making appropriations of water in the lakes around the valley, he constructed an irrigation canal through a section of land which he had acquired at Greenacres.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltOpportunity Township Hall is built
In the archiveSpokaneValley1918
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2021HuttonSettlementAuditorium
2021Harvard Road Bridge
2021Chevron Station
2021Barker Road Bridge
2021BNSF Bridge Spokane
2020SpokaneValleyWA I-90 Exit286
2020SpokaneValleyWA I-90 CityLimit
2018Spokane Valley City Hall
2017Holiday Hills
2017Central Valley High School
2017Carlson Hill
2015Opportunity Township Hall
2014Cmglee Spokane Valley night aerial
20142014-365-355 Nancy's Little Free Library
2013Spokane Valley panorama from Eagle Peak
2013Mica Peaks from Eagle Peak
2013Aerial - Spokane, WA 02 - white balanced
2013Aerial - Spokane, WA 02
2012Spokane Valley Museum
2011Crossland Studios
2007University High School (Spokane Valley, Washington) c…
2007U-High Commons University High School (Spokane Valley…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Spokane Valley. 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 Spokane Valley.
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 Spokane Valley’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 80,927 and 102,976 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Spokane Valley’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Spokane Valley post office opened in 2000, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 2003.
Spokane Valley is more historic than 19% of U.S. towns, #188 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.
One place: the Opportunity Township Hall (listed 2005).
5% of Spokane Valley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (23), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
