Plymouth’s post office opened in 1846, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #35 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 46 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1887 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Plymouth post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Plymouth’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Plymouth is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #35 of 362 in Wisconsin. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Plymouth’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 Plymouth’s 58.5 sits above most of its state (89% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 52 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− 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 Plymouth’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Every building
Plymouth, building by building, 1887–1910
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.
Plymouth was surveyed in 1835 by United States General Land Office surveyors. The Mullet river was named after one of the surveyors. The first land sold to a private party was sold on August 13, 1836 to Englishman John Law, who had emigrated from London. The next sale was to Thomas Margrave, also from London. Settlers continued arriving, leading to the Town of Plymouth being organized on April 3, 1849. In the 1840s a group of migrants arrived from Tioga County, Pennsylvania. The Thorpe family arrived from Hartford, Connecticut. The town was named Plymouth, after Plymouth, Massachusetts, where the Pilgrims had landed in 1620.
Passages that mention Plymouth, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present1912 · page 344Read the page →
Read the text
ganized December i, 1857, to have charge of the business and legal matters appertaining to the church. C. W. Wilder, Elijah Dawley and Joseph Bamford were elected trustees ; M. Benson, clerk ; and O. Treadwell, treasurer. A preparatory lecture was delivered in the schoolhouse in Plymouth, Saturday, July i, 1858. This seems to have been the beginning of a movement to move the church from the town of Lyndon to the village of Plymouth.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present1912Read the page →
Read the text
THE VILLAGE OF PLYMOUTH IS LAID OUT In the summer of 1847 John W. Taylor employed a surveyor to lay out the village of Plymouth, having purchased that portion of Plymouth lying west of Division street, and divided it into town lots. Mr. Davidson, who assisted Mr. Taylor, at the time expressed little faith in the future of Plymouth. In the spring of 1847 Thomas I. Davidson built a log grocery store, having purchased a small stock of goods from G. N. Lyman. In June, 1847, William D. Lipe built a small log shop opposite the Cold Spring House,
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
Plymouth, 1846 to 1987
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Plymouth post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Plymouth rank for history?
Plymouth is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #35 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 Plymouth?
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Henry H. Huson House and Water Tower (listed 1980, the first), and 1 historic district, the Downtown Plymouth Historic District, with 46 contributing buildings. 52 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Plymouth?
22% of Plymouth’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1971.
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), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
1941
1941
2006
2006
2006
2005