Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Main Street Historic District · Photo: Teemu08 · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 73% of U.S. towns · #112 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 163 buildings between them. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1860.
The Lake Geneva post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Bay Hill (1864), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake Geneva is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns, #112 of 362 in Wisconsin. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Lake Geneva’s 202 sits above most of its state (97% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 172 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lake Geneva. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lake Geneva.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1892Sheet 1 of 5Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lake Geneva.
Originally called "Maunk-suck" (Big Foot)" after the man who led the local band of the Potawatomi in the first half of the 19th century, the city was later named Geneva after the town of Geneva, New York, which government surveyor John Brink thought it resembled. To avoid confusion with the nearby town of Geneva, Wisconsin, it was later renamed "Lake Geneva".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lake Geneva, cut from the printed page as they were published.
lield to decide the question of issuing bonds in favor of the Chicago, Lake Geneva & Pacific Railroad Company, a company organized to build a railroad through here, connecting at both ends with the Wisconsin Central railroad. At that election a majority of votes was cast in favor of issuing bonds to the amount of $20,000, one of the conditions being that the road should be completed by the first of January 1892, but the bonds were never issued nor was the condition performed.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
near Elkhorn, one near L. Jackson’s in the north part of the town, and the bridge near the foot of Broad Street and two on Main Street in the village. At the session of the Legislature this year, a special charter was secured for Lake Geneva Seminary. Our people were also more fortunate in respect to railroad legislation, and succeeded in obtaining a charter which they could themselves control, authorizing them to construct a road from the state line, at the village of Bloomfield, (now Genoa
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
feet abeam, and could carry one hundred and fifty persons. Edward Ouigley launched the "Lady of the Lake,'' a larger boat, in 1873. A yet larger steamer, the "Lucius Newberry," home-built, was launched in 1875 and was burned in 1891 as the "City of Lake Geneva." In 1883 three steamers were sold and two new ones launched. There were then nineteen steamers afloat. In 1890 six new ones were added, three of which were home-built.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The highway from Lake Geneva to East Troy, by way of the village of Spring Prairie, is crossed by the railway 2.8 miles west of Lyons, on the south side of section 7. This road was for many years, before and after a station was made there, an important mail route, and hence a convenient point for retail trade, grain and wool buying, and lumber-selling. In the mid seventies considerable shipments of dressed poultry were made, largely to Boston buyers. Changes in the industries of the county, with consequent effects on the business of villages, have checked the growth of Springfield,
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltMetropolitan Block is built
In the archiveResidence of Mrs. George SturgisBuiltRedwood Cottage is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveLake Geneva Sanatorium advertisement (1896)BuiltHorticultural Hall is built
Born hereNeil Gehrels is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1880Residence of Mrs. George Sturgis![Lake Geneva, Wis., residence of Mr. Conrad Seip [Seir ?]](https://images.townratings.com/story/19266/d1e0cf58ee8aa1a6e57d-s.jpg)
1880Lake Geneva, Wis., residence of Mr. Conrad Seip [Seir…
1880Lake Geneva, residence of Mr. L.Z. Leiter or Lieter
1880View from residence of L.Z. Lieter
1882Bird's eye view of Lake Geneva, Walworth Co., Wis. 18…
1882Bird's eye view of Lake Geneva, Walworth Co., Wis. 18…
1882Bird's eye view of Lake Geneva, Walworth Co., Wis. 18…No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Lake Geneva’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,097 people in 1860 to 8,277 in 2020, 7 times over.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lake Geneva’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Lake Geneva’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Bay Hill, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lake Geneva post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lake Geneva 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.
8 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Younglands (listed 1979, the first), 2 historic districts, the Main Street Historic District and the Maple Park Historic District, with 163 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 172 historic buildings in all.
14% of Lake Geneva’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1978.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (5), the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (8), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1896
1898