Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1850.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Omro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Omro is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #33 of 362 in Wisconsin. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Omro’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 Omro’s 35.7 sits above most of its state (86% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 13 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would still be A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±12.1 points). Two sources give 1842.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Omro’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1870 and 1920, then grew 3-fold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Omro’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Omro, building by building, 1887–1913
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.
OMRO, P. V., on section 17 and 18, in town of Bloomingdale, Winnebago county, at the junction of the Manitowoc and Menasha, (extended), and the Waupun and Liberty Prairie plank roads. It is pleasantly situated on the south side of the Neenah [Fox] river, 11 miles west from Oshkosh, and 75 miles northeast from Madison. It has a heavy body of timber on the north, with a rich soil of openings and prairie on the south, and has excellent facilities by water for obtaining pine logs from the immense pinery of Wolf river, a great quantity of which is here manufactured into lumber. Population 600, with 100 dwellings, 5 stores, 2 hotels, 3 mills, and 4 religious denominations. A Company has been organized and is now completing the proper buildings for the manufacture of glass.
Passages that mention Omro, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest1880Read the page →
Read the text
a log house, into which he moved with his family, at that time, and continued to reside there until 1875, when he moved into the Village of Omro, where he now lives. He served as supervisor for two terms, and helped to organize the first district school in the Village of Omro; and also to build the first schoolhouse.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Winnebago County, Wisconsin, and early history of the Northwest1880 · page 109Read the page →
Read the text
The village of Omro was started later than Waukau. A plat of the village was recorded in 1849, '^'icl '" 1850 the place commenced to make that growth which has since developed the stirring and prosperous village of Omro, for full history of which see subsequent pages.
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
Omro, 1842 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Omro’s history
What year was Omro founded?
In 1842, according to Wikidata. Omro’s post office opened in 1850, and the census of 1870 counted 1,838 people here.
How does Omro rank for history?
Omro is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #33 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 Omro?
Three places: the Omro High School, Annex and Webster Manual Training School (listed 1985), the Omro Village Hall and Engine House (1997) and the Omro Downtown Historic District (1996).
How old are the homes in Omro?
27% of Omro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.
2008
2008
2006
2005
