The Center post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Fellows (1887), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,046176 years
How historic is Center?
B−
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Center post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Center’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Center is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Center’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 Center’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 (±8.7 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 Center’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 Center. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1891Janesville 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 Center.
The story so far
Center, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Center yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
The Town of Center is located in Rock County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,046 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Center is in the town. The ghost town of Fellows was also located in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1850. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,066 in 2010, 1,046 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Center, 1879–1908
Passages that mention Center, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Rock County, Wisconsin1879 · page 672Read the page →
Read the text
The cemetery, which is located in the town of Center, is used equally by the residents of the village of Footville and the town of Center ; but the control of it is vested in an association, all of whose members live in the latter place. It was laid out in 1847, and is well cared for.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Rock County, Wisconsin1879 · page 670Read the page →
Read the text
ground opposite his present habitation. For some time he lived in a small log house, but finally erected a gravel building just across the town line, so that while de jure he is a resident of the village of Footville, in the town of Plymouth, de facto he is one of the inhabitants of the town of Center. He was followed in the fall of the same year by Mr. E. F. Richards, who located near Mr. Foot. With the exception of two other persons who moved in and built at a somewhat later date, this constituted the village of Footville until 1854, when the Galena & Chicago Union, as the C. & N.-W. Railway was then called, became an established fact, then, as might have been expected, emigrants from the Eastern States and other places began to flow
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
is also a county teachers' association which holds helpful meetings in the spring and fall. Some of the districts have built model modem school buildings such as that of Joint District No. 3, town of Center, and No. 3, Avon. The latter school house has hardwood floors, steel ceilings, neatly painted side walls, slate blackboards, and the latest type of school furniture and apparatus. In 1904 some sixty-one of the districts in the first county district made good improvements. In the second county district
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
Center, 1850 to 1902
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Center post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Center rank for history?
Center is more historic than 47% 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 Center?
27% of Center’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.7 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1976.
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), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2013