Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #51 of 285 in Washington. What drives it
Most of Steilacoom was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. 4 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 38 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1948 on, and the census since 1880.
The Steilacoom post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Steilacoom is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #51 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 Steilacoom’s 64.3 sits above most of its state (95% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 43 historic buildings outnumber those of 84% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Steilacoom’s history is told.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Steilacoom.
The Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe, lived in what became the city of Steilacoom. Their main village was called Scht’ləqʷəm, later anglicized as Steilacoom. William Bright says the name comes from the Southern Coast Salish subgroup /č'tílqʷəbš/, anglicized as "Steilacoom".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Steilacoom, cut from the printed page as they were published.
When Abraham W. Stewart was one year old, the family moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and there he was reared and educated. In the fall of 1851 he made the long overland trip with ox teams to Washington territory, locating first at what is now Olympia, where he lived several years. About 1855 he came to Steilacoom, where he built a gristmill for Burd Brothers. He was a wagon maker and spinning wheel maker by trade. He took up a homestead in what is now the central part of Tacoma, proved up on it, and cleared off part of it, building a house, in which he lived until 1873. He then moved to Whatcom county, this state, where he took up a
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In recalling conditions existing in the early days here, Mrs. Alward states that while living on Anderson’s island they were compelled to go to Steilacoom for their mail, there being no post office then on the island, and two or three times a week she and her son rowed a boat to the mainland for the mail. In the early years of the Western Washington Fair she took a deep interest in it and in order to swell the exhibits she would take vegetables, fruit, grain, grasses and stock for exhibit. She has always been a strong booster for the fair, being an honorary vice president for many years, and she has contributed of her efforts to its success. As farmer and
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.
In the archiveLafayette Balch, ca. 1850BuiltSteilacoom Catholic Church is builtBuiltDavidson House is built
In the archiveCabin near Steilacoom
In the archiveMcCaw and Rogers Building, Steilacoom, Washington, ca. 1906
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Steilacoom. 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 Steilacoom.
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 Steilacoom’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 250 people in 1880 to 6,727 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Steilacoom’s Wikipedia page.
Steilacoom had its own post office from 1852 to 1971.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Steilacoom post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Steilacoom is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #51 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.
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Nathaniel Orr House and Orchard (listed 1972, the first), and 1 historic district, the Steilacoom Historic District, with 38 contributing buildings. 43 historic buildings in all.
6% of Steilacoom’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.4 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (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 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
