Founding year: the first Norrie post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Norrie’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Norrie is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Norrie’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 Norrie’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 C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.7 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 Norrie’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Norrie yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
The Town of Norrie is located in Marathon County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Wausau, Wisconsin Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,010 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1880. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 976 to 1,010 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Norrie in 1913
Passages that mention Norrie, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 569Read the page →
Read the text
The Congregationalists have a church in the village of Norrie, named the First Congregational Church at Norrie, which was organized on February 22, 1892, with Rev. Margeret Elliot as pastor and nineteen members, and the present house of worship erected during the same year. Since that time some of the old members have moved away, some (Norwegians) have joined the Scandinavian church, which has been organized since, and others have come to take their places. The present congregation numbers eighteen and it has no resident pastor. The Sunday school has been kept up regu-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 575Read the page →
Read the text
The town is divided in four school districts with five schoolhouses, the fourth district being a joint district, part of it lying in the town of Plover and the town of Norrie. The new settlers in that town are making great headway in clearing up land and getting stock. In a few years this town will be as prosperous as any of the older towns.
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
Norrie, 1880 to 1964
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Norrie post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Norrie rank for history?
Norrie is more historic than 36% 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 Norrie?
16% of Norrie’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 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 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.
