The Lafayette post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Westville (1856) and Bowers (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 2,039177 years
How historic is Lafayette?
B−
More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lafayette post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Lafayette’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lafayette is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lafayette’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 Lafayette’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 (±3.2 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 Lafayette’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Lafayette, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lafayette yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Lafayette is a town in Walworth County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 2,039 at the 2020 census. The unincorporated community of Bowers is located in the town. The unincorporated community of Abells Corners is also located partially in the town.
Its first post office opened in 1849. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,979 to 2,039 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Lafayette in 1912
Passages that mention Lafayette, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Walworth county, Wisconsin ..1912 · page 54Read the page →
Read the text
organized for home rule. The village of Elkhorn, laid out in 1837, spread itself loosely into four sections, lying in as many towns. This was soon found inconvenient for various county purposes, and in 1846 section 1 of Delavan, section 6 of Geneva, section 31 of Lafayette, and section 36 of the town of Elkhorn were set off as a new town and village of Elkhorn, and the larger remnant of the old town was renamed Sugar Creek. Thus, the list of towns became complete : Bloomfield, Darien, Delavan, East Troy, Elkhorn, Geneva, Hudson, Lafayette, Lagrange, Linn, Richmond, Sharon, Spring Prairie,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Walworth county, Wisconsin ..1912 · page 357Read the page →
Read the text
Town 4 north of range 16 east was set off March 21, 1843, from the town of Elkhorn and named for an estate or country-seat of the hereof three revolutions, Marquis de Lafayette. It lies next southward from Palmyra, in Jefferson county; and the city of that name has trade relations and some personal interests with part of the town on this side of the line. Lagrange is generally about nine hundred fifty-five feet above sea-level. It is within the lower loop of the great Kettle moraine, and its numerous pot-like depressions are characteristic of that great glacial deposit. Some of these are
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
Lafayette, 1849 to 1906
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Lafayette post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lafayette rank for history?
Lafayette is more historic than 50% 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 Lafayette?
10% of Lafayette’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1990.
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 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.
