Founding year: the first Brooklyn post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Brooklyn’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brooklyn is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brooklyn’s overall grade.
Wisconsin towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Wisconsin town has 3.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Brooklyn’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 is a Census survey estimate (±7.9 points). 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 Brooklyn’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brooklyn. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1889Evansville sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Brooklyn.
The story so far
Brooklyn, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Brooklyn yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Brooklyn is a town in Green County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,108 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Attica is located in the town. Section one of the Town of Brooklyn contains the portion of the village of Brooklyn that lies in Green County.
Its first post office opened in 1851. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,401 to 1,524 (+9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Brooklyn, 1877–1880
Passages that mention Brooklyn, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Madison, Dane County and surrounding towns1877 · page 634Read the page →
Read the text
The village of Brooklyn is situated in the northeast comer of the town, on the railroad, midway between Evaiisville and Oregon, six miles from either. It contains four stores, a cheese factory, a good lumber yard, a livery stable, two hotels, a pastoffice, two blacksmith chops, two harness shops, and does a large produce and stock business, conducted by E. J. Andrew & Sons, B. S. Axtell is the oldest merchant and is postmas*
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Madison, Dane County and surrounding towns1877 · page 632Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Brooklyn is situated in the northeast corner of Green county, and borders on the towns of Rutland and Oregon in Dane county. In the northeast part of the town there is some very good laud, partly of burr oak opening and good prairie, with souie fine groves of timber, while on the east side of the toT there are a few sections of good prairie land. The balance of the town is oak openings, much* of it quite high
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Dane County, Wisconsin ... preceded by a history of Wisconsin, statistics of the state, and an abstract of its laws and constitution and of the Constitution of the United States1880 · page 611Read the page →
Read the text
This road, in running north, crosses the extreme southwest corner of the town of Rutland in Dane County ; then, after crossing the northeast corner of Green County , at Brooklyn, again enters Dane in the town of Oregon. Its course thence to the city of Madison, through the towns of Oregon, Fitchburg and Madison, is almost due north. After leaving the city and town of Madison, its course is northwesterly through the towns of Westport, Vienna and Dane, crossing into Columbia County from the last-mentioned town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Dane County, Wisconsin ... preceded by a history of Wisconsin, statistics of the state, and an abstract of its laws and constitution and of the Constitution of the United States1880 · page 849Read the page →
Read the text
dained and become Pastor to the Fulton Church. The church at Cooksville having later transferred themselves to the village of Stoughton, he removed his residence thither in December, 1858. Here he continued to reside and preach up to the time of his death, excepting one interval, when he was ministering to a church he had gathered and organized at Brooklyn, tffelve miles distant, and to which he continued to preach till he was unable to meet the exposure incident to the travel from his home.
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.
Timeline
Brooklyn, 1851 to 1905
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Brooklyn post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Brooklyn rank for history?
Brooklyn is more historic than 45% 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.
How old are the homes in Brooklyn?
24% of Brooklyn’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1987.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
2014
