Founding year: the first Phillips post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Phillips’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Phillips is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Phillips’ 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 Phillips’ 18.7 sits above most of its state (82% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.9 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 Phillips’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town of Phillips was platted in 1876 and named after Elijah B. Phillips, the general manager of the Wisconsin Central Railway. It began as a logging town.
In the dry summer of 1894, a devastating fire spread from the southwest and destroyed the town. The population evacuated, and 13 people died in the blaze. The town was rebuilt and expanded in subsequent years, and a memorial to the disaster now stands on the shore of Lake Duroy.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Phillips post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Phillips rank for history?
Phillips is more historic than 71% 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.
What is on the National Register in Phillips?
Two places: the Phillips High School (listed 1995) and the Lidice Memorial (2006).
How old are the homes in Phillips?
24% of Phillips’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1970.
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 (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2012
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