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B+History
History · Kiel

Kiel’s post office opened in 1861, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 73% of U.S. towns · #112 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it

Its Register listings are the Carl Gottlieb Heins House and the Kiel Mill. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1880.

1861first post office
2on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Kiel began

When was Kiel founded?

1861

The Kiel post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Schleswig (1860) and Schleswig (1900), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 363 in 18802020 census: 3,932165 years

How historic is Kiel?

B+

More historic than 73% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Kiel post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Kiel’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kiel is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns, #112 of 362 in Wisconsin. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Kiel’s overall grade.
Founding era1861, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194026.5% of homes (±7.2) · typical WI town 12.1% · U.S. 8.4%A−National Register2 listings, 4 historic buildings, 10.1 per 10,000 residents · typical WI town 3.0 · U.S. 2.4B+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 73%
NewerOlder
Wisconsin towns of 2,500+ (362)Ahead of 69%

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 Kiel’s 10.1 sits above most of its state (77% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.2 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 Kiel’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Kiel are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Kiel.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kiel’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kiel’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Kiel’s post office has been open since 1861. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Schleswig
1860–1861
Kiel
1861–today
Schleswig
1900–1902
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Kiel Grade Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Kiel
Saints Peter and Paul

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Kiel came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Kiel.

Read it all →

In 1852 Charley Lindemann immigrated to the area and began a settlement among the Native American Menominee and Potawatomi tribes. His wife named the community after her home town of Kiel, Germany. Two years later, Col. Henry F. Belitz, later nicknamed the "Father of Kiel", built a hotel and mill along the north side of the Sheboygan River. A road was built across Wisconsin to connect Green Bay with Milwaukee area communities. The bridge was built across the Sheboygan River in 1858 connecting Kiel with Sheboygan. In the late nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, Kiel became a manufacturing area with businesses specializing in brick, wood shoes, machine, and furniture manufacturing.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Kiel, 1860 to 1954

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1860Post officeThe Schleswig post office opens
  3. 1861Post officeThe Schleswig post office closes
  4. 1861Post officeThe Kiel post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900Post officeThe Schleswig post office opens
  7. 1902Post officeThe Schleswig post office closes
  8. 1906BuiltCarl Gottlieb Heins House is built
  9. 1937Born hereKarl A. Schleunes is born here
  10. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Kiel, decade by decade

Today12 recent
KielWisconsinPublicLibrary2008KielWisconsinPublicLibraryKielPostOfficeWisconsin2008KielPostOfficeWisconsinCarlGottliebHeinsHouseWest2008CarlGottliebHeinsHouseWestCarlGottliebHeinsHouseSouthwest2008CarlGottliebHeinsHouseSouthwestCarlGottliebHeinsHouseNorth2008CarlGottliebHeinsHouseNorthSheboyganRiverKielWisconsinFrozen2007SheboyganRiverKielWisconsinFrozenManitowocCountySignWIS57WIS322007ManitowocCountySignWIS57WIS32KielWisconsinSign2007KielWisconsinSignKielWisconsinHighSchool2007KielWisconsinHighSchoolKielWisconsinCityHall2007KielWisconsinCityHallLandOLakesKielWisconsin2006LandOLakesKielWisconsinKielWisconsin2006KielWisconsin
On the map

Kiel on the map, 1954 to 1992

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kiel. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Kiel on the 1954 USGS mapKiel on the 1974 USGS mapKiel on the 1992 USGS map1954Kiel 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 Kiel.

On the National Register

2 historic places in Kiel

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
1998
Carl Gottlieb Heins House
Carl Gottlieb Heins House, built 1906Kiel Mill
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Colonial Revival1
Carl Gottlieb Heins HouseColonial Revival · Built 1906
All 2 listings
Kiel MillBuilding · listed 2022

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Kiel, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,000188019001920194019601980200020203,932

Grew from 363 people in 1880 to 3,932 in 2020, more than tenfold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kiel’s Wikipedia page.

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

SchleswigIts storyC+New HolsteinIts storyB+

Questions about Kiel’s history

What year was Kiel founded?

The Kiel post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Kiel rank for history?

Kiel is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns, #112 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 Kiel?

Two places: the Carl Gottlieb Heins House (listed 1998) and the Kiel Mill (2022).

How old are the homes in Kiel?

27% of Kiel’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1971.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (12), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.