The story
Read it all →How Rhine came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Rhine.
German settlers named the town after the Rhine River in Europe.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
A−History
History · Rhine
Rhine’s post office opened in 1863, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Villa Laun, the Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits and the Sheboygan Valley Land and Lime Company. Below: maps from 1954 on and old-book passages.
1863first post office
3on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Rhine began
When was Rhine founded?
1863
The Rhine post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Saint George (1879), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 2,139163 years
How historic is Rhine?
A−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Rhine post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rhine’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rhine is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rhine’s overall grade.
Founding era1863, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194027.3% of homes (±6.8) · typical WI town 12.1% · U.S. 8.4%A−National Register3 listings, 5 historic buildings, 25.4 per 10,000 residents · typical WI town 3.0 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 76%
NewerOlder
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 Rhine’s 25.4 sits above most of its state (84% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% 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 (±6.8 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 Rhine’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Rhine’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Rhine’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.From the old history books
What they wrote about Rhine in 1912
Passages that mention Rhine, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present1912 · page 59Read the page →
Read the text
At that time, he and several other Indians had a camp on the north bank of the Sheboygan river, not far from the bridge that spans it near the schoolhouse in District No. 5, in the town of Rhine. One Sunday, a fine spring morning in the month of May, 1852, when vegetation was waking Digitized by Google
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Sheboygan County, Wisconsin, past and present1912 · page 77Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Rhine was settled by a large colony of Rhinelanders from whence it took its name. In 1847 economic conditions in the Wupper Valley were very bad and three hundred inhabitants of Elberfeld and. Barmen, chiefly handcraftsmen and tradesmen of some means, went to America. A large niunber of them settled in Sheboygan.
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
Rhine, 1863 to 1954
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Rhine on the map, 1954 to 1992
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Rhine. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1954Franklin sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Rhine.
On the National Register
3 historic places in Rhine
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
5
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Villa Laun
BuildingsStructures
Architectural styles listings
Queen Anne1
Villa LaunQueen Anne
Elkhart Lake Road Race CircuitsStructure
Sheboygan Valley Land and Lime CompanyBuilding
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Rhine
Nobody well known was born in Rhine itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds
Rhine had its own post office from 1863 to 1903. Another post office, Saint George, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Rhine
Saint George
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Crystal Lake Crushed Stone QuarrymineJoliet SchoolschoolLittle Elkhart Lake SchoolschoolVictory Schoolschool
7cemeteries and burying grounds inside Rhine
Elkhart LakeLibertyMillerSaint GeorgeSaint Peter EvangelicalTrinityZoar Salem
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Rhine’s history
What year was Rhine founded?
The Rhine post office opened in 1863, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rhine rank for history?
Rhine is more historic than 76% 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 Rhine?
Three places: the Villa Laun (listed 1982), the Elkhart Lake Road Race Circuits (2006) and the Sheboygan Valley Land and Lime Company (2016).
How old are the homes in Rhine?
27% of Rhine’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1974.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, 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.