Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1981 on, and the census since 1890.
The Spencer post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Spencer is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Spencer’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 Spencer’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1890 and 1910, then grew 5-fold.
13 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Spencer’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Spencer.
Spencer was known by the name Waltham. Then the name was changed to Irene, after the wife of James L. Robinson, a settler who had built a sawmill there. Later the town was named Spencer, after Spencer, Massachusetts.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Spencer, cut from the printed page as they were published.
THE VILLAGE OF SPENCER was incorporated in 1904 from part of the town of Spencer, and George Farrington was elected its first representative in the county board. It became a village almost simultaneously with the building of the Wisconsin Central Railroad, and for some time had a very fast growth. The territory was thickly studded with big, heavy pine timber, and as early as 1877 there were four large saw mills situated in the site of the present village. In the congressional election of 1878 the town of Spencer, which then included the present
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
all on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad; then there are Norrie, Hatley, Ringle, Callon, Kelly, Marathon City, Edgar, Kenwood, Stratford, and McMillan on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, and Athens, Milano, and Corinth on the Sault St. Mary Railroad, and Spencer, Unity, and Colby on the same railroad, and Eldron and Gallowa on a branch of the Northwestern railroad, branching off and running south from Eland Junction.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSpencer, Wis
Born hereTed Fritsch is born here
Born hereDave Dudley is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2012Spencer Wisconsin Sign WIS13
2012Spencer Wisconsin Downtown WIS98 Eastern terminus loo…
2012Spencer Wisconsin Downtown WIS13
2012Spencer Wisconsin Downtown WIS13 WIS98
2012Spencer United Methodist Church
2012Spencer Tower 2
2012Spencer Tower 1
2012Northcentral Technical College Spencer Wisconsin Camp…
2012Burnstad's Market - panoramio (1)
2012ATC Power Line - panoramio (24)The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Spencer.
1981Spencer North 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 Spencer.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Spencer’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Spencer post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Spencer is more historic than 38% 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.
17% of Spencer’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (11), the Library of Congress (1), 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 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.
1912