Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Heart Prairie Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church. Below: maps from 1954 on and old-book passages.
The Richmond post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lyman (1899), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Richmond is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Richmond’s 6.0 sits above most of its state (67% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Richmond’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Richmond yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1844. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,884 in 2010, 1,901 in 2020.
Passages that mention Richmond, cut from the printed page as they were published.
It is described in the government survey as town 3 range 16 east. It is bounded on the north by the town of LaGrange ; east by LaFayette and Elkhorn ; south by Elkhorn and Delavan, and west by the town of Richmond. Its area embraces a full Congressional township of six miles square, less one section (No. 36) in the southeast corner, which was set off at the time it was incorporated, as a part of the present town of Elkhorn.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Bloomfield is the extreme southeastern town in Walworth County, and is bounded north by the town of Lyons ; south by the town of Richmond, Illinois ; east by the town of Wheatland, Kenosha County ; and west by the town of Linn. It contains thirty-six square miles of varied and diversified country, well watered, and admirably adapted to agricultural pursuits, Bloom Prairie, in the southwestern portion of the town, being considered the richest land in the county.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
At an extra session of the territorial Legislature by an act dated August 18, 1840, this town was made a part of Whitewater. Five months later, January 12, 1841, it was set off as the town of Richmond. Among the first-comers to the town were Thomas and T. Perry James and Robert Sherman, from Richmond, Washington county, Rhode Island, and their influence, just then, was sufficient to place another Richmond in the field of American geography.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Richmond. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Richmond.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Richmond itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Richmond had its own post office from 1844 to 1906. Another post office, Lyman, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Richmond post office opened in 1844, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Richmond is more historic than 74% 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.
One place: the Heart Prairie Norwegian Methodist Episcopal Church (listed 2023).
14% of Richmond’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1973.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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