Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: DKRKaynor · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 78% of U.S. towns. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 18 buildings. Below: 16 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
Waitsburg dates its founding to 1859 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Waitsburg is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age 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 Waitsburg’s 194 sits above most of its state (98% of Washington towns have fewer) while its 21 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1888Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
4 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
c. 1893Fire department testing the water system, Waitsburg, …
c. 1893First Presbyterian Church, Waitsburg, Washington, ca.…
c. 1893Harvesting wheat
c. 1893Main Street, Waitsburg, Washington, ca. 1893
c. 1893Public school, Waitsburg, Washington, ca. 1893
c. 1893Waitsburg Academy, Waitsburg, Washington, ca. 1893
c. 1893Waitsburg, Washington, ca. 1893
c. 1893Washington Flouring Mills, Waitsburg, Washington, ca.…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Waitsburg. 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 Waitsburg.
From Wikipedia’s history of Waitsburg.
Prior to settlement by European American pioneers, the area that is now Waitsburg was home to the Palouse people. The juncture of the Touchet River and Coppei Creek, where Waitsburg would eventually develop, was recorded in the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition during their return trip in 1806.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Waitsburg, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In May, 1859, our subject came to the site of the present city of Waitsburg, and from tl:at date until 1880 he was actively engaged in the basic industr}' of agriculture. He then moved into the town of Waitsburg and engaged in the business of handling stock, continuing in the same until 1887, when he embarked in the business in which we now find
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
of public opinion for nearly a decade. His entire life thus far has been passed in Waitsburg, and' in the public schools of that town and in Waitsburg Academy he received his education. After retiring from school he taught a year, then became editor of the Waitsburg Times. His paper, like many other important enterprises, had an humble beginning,
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.
BuiltWilliam Perry Bruce House is built
Born hereC. N. Eaton is born hereIn the archiveFire department testing the water system, Waitsburg, Washington, ca. 1893
Born hereGenevieve Taggard is born here
BuiltPreston Hall is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveShaded street. Waitsburg, Washington
In the archiveFlooded homes on the east side of Waitsburg, Washington, December 23, 1964
In the archiveCity Hall (then First National Bank), Main StreetNo 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 Waitsburg’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 248 and 1,237 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Waitsburg’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Waitsburg’s post office has been open since 1893. Another post office, Waitsburgh, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1859, according to Wikidata. Waitsburg’s post office opened in 1871, and the census of 1880 counted 248 people here.
Waitsburg is more historic than 78% 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.
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the William Perry Bruce House (listed 1975, the first), and 1 historic district, the Waitsburg Historic District, with 18 contributing buildings. 21 historic buildings in all.
23% of Waitsburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 4.3% for a Washington town; the median home was built in 1962.
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 (14), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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