Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns. What drives it
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 4 buildings. Below: maps from 1923 on and old-book passages.
The Montrose post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Paoli (1858) and Basco (1889), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Montrose is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. 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 Montrose’s 76.5 sits above most of its state (92% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Montrose’s history is told.
Montrose had its own post office from 1878 to 1900. Two other post offices 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Montrose. 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 Montrose.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Montrose yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1878. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,081 in 2010, 1,064 in 2020.
Passages that mention Montrose, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of Montrose wa3 first settled in 1841, by Joseph Kendricks and George McFadden and families, Elam Elder, then single, and Benjamin Crocker and family.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Another circumstance that took place in the pioneer days of our town, was a conflict between Primrose and the adjoining town of Montrose, An old man, by name Mr. Jackson, in Primrose, owned a claim covered with good oak timber. This timber some of the settlers in the town of Montrose tried to get possession of, and so they came up in tolerable large numbers, having Mr. L for their leader^ and
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe 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.
Nobody well known was born in Montrose itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Montrose post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Montrose is more historic than 74% 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.
Three places: the Paoli Mills (listed 1979), the John Fritz Farmstead (1998) and the Paoli Co-Operative Creamery Company Plant (2023).
21% of Montrose’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.
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