Prescott dates to 1839, and 2 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 67% of U.S. towns · #136 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
Most of Prescott was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Its Register listings are the Daniel Smith House and the Miller, H. S., Bank. Its Register listings are the Daniel Smith House and the Miller, H. S., Bank. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1860.
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1852.
History grade
What drives Prescott’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Prescott is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns, #136 of 362 in Wisconsin. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Prescott’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 Prescott’s 4.4 sits near the middle of its state (65% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 (±5.1 points). Two sources give 1839.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Prescott’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 1930, then grew 5-fold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Prescott’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Prescott, building by building, 1884–1912
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Prescott, 1839 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Prescott yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Prescott is a city in Pierce County, Wisconsin, United States, at the confluence of the St. Croix River and Mississippi River. Prescott is at the edge of the Minneapolis–St. Paul metropolitan area. The population was 4,333 at the 2020 census, making it the county's second-largest city after River Falls and the largest entirely within Pierce County. Prescott was home to the mother house of the Franciscan Servants of Jesus. The town was first settled by (and named for) Philander Prescott, who opened a trading post there in 1839.
Prescott was established in 1839. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 4,258 in 2010, 4,333 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
By decade
Prescott, decade by decade
4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
In 1839, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Prescott’s post office opened in 1852, and the census of 1860 counted 1,031 people here.
How does Prescott rank for history?
Prescott is more historic than 67% of U.S. towns, #136 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 Prescott?
Two places: the Daniel Smith House (listed 1984) and the Miller, H. S., Bank (1994).
How old are the homes in Prescott?
8% of Prescott’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1983.
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 (15), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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