Germantown’s post office opened in 1927, and 3 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns · #316 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
Most of Germantown was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Its Register listings are the Christian Turck House, the Christ Evangelical Church and the Schunk, Jacob, Farmhouse. Below: maps from 1892 on and the census since 1930.
The Germantown post office opened in 1927, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Meeker (1844), Dheinsville (1872) and Rockfield (1876), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 255 in 19302020 census: 20,91799 years
How historic is Germantown?
C−
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Germantown post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Germantown’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Germantown is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns, #316 of 362 in Wisconsin. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Germantown’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 Germantown’s 1.4 sits near the middle of its state (58% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share (±2.4 points) is firm at this size. 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 Germantown’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The land that became Germantown was originally inhabited by members of the Potawatomi tribe. The Potawatomi surrendered the land that became Germantown to the United States Federal Government in 1833 through the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, which (after being ratified in 1835) required them to leave Wisconsin by 1838. While many Native people moved west of the Mississippi River to Kansas, some chose to remain or return after temporarily settling in the west, and were referred to as "strolling Potawatomi" in contemporary documents because many of them were migrants who subsisted by squatting on their ancestral lands, which were now owned by White settlers. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Potawatomi who evaded forced removal gathered in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where many worked in the timber industry and formed the Forest County Potawatomi Communit…
The Germantown post office opened in 1927, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Germantown rank for history?
Germantown is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns, #316 of 362 in Wisconsin. 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.
What is on the National Register in Germantown?
Three places: the Christian Turck House (listed 1973), the Christ Evangelical Church (1983) and the Schunk, Jacob, Farmhouse (1983).
How old are the homes in Germantown?
5% of Germantown’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.4 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1988.
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 (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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) 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.
2009
2009