Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 250 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers from 1880 on.
The Bayfield post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bayfield’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Bayfield.
Bayfield was named in 1856 for Henry Bayfield, a British Royal Topographic Engineer who explored the region in 1822–23. A post office has been in operation at Bayfield since 1856.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltChrist Episcopal Church is built
In the archiveBayfield from Madeline IslandBuiltOld Bayfield County Courthouse is builtBuiltBooth Cooperage is builtBuiltFrank Boutin Jr. House is built
Born hereVan Cleave is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Bayfield’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Bayfield post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Christ Episcopal Church (listed 1974, the first), and 1 historic district, the Bayfield Historic District, with 250 contributing buildings. 254 historic buildings in all.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (2), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
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