Founding year: the first Spring Green post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Spring Green’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Spring Green is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Spring Green’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 Spring Green’s 28.6 sits above most of its state (85% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 (±3.9 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 Spring Green’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Spring Green yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Spring Green is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,566 at the 2020 census. The village is located within the Town of Spring Green. It is perhaps best known for the architect Frank Lloyd Wright's estate Taliesin and related tourism.
Its first post office opened in 1854. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,628 to 1,566 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Spring Green in 1880
Passages that mention Spring Green, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources ... biographical sketches ..1880 · page 340Read the page →
Read the text
In November, 1850, the remainder of Town 10, Range 5, was added to the town of Honey Creek, in accordance with the prayer of residents therein, and, at the same sitting of the board, the town of Honey Creek was divided, and the town of Spring Green created, the latter being set off as follows : "Commencing two miles north of the south line of Town 9, running thence west to the west line of the county, and all that part of said town lying south of said line shall be a town called Spring Green."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources ... biographical sketches ..1880 · page 664Read the page →
Read the text
This town is the largest in area of any of the towns in the county, there being above fiftythree sections in all. Like the town of Spring Green, it is bordered on the south by the Wisconsin, on the north by the town of Honey Creek, on the east by the town of Prairie du Sac, and on the west by the towns of Spring Green and Franklin. The surface, in some portions, is exceedingly broken. The belt of bluffs that courses along the northern boundary of Spring Green, and which appears to be the boundary of some great body of water, continues its way from east to west, through the south central part of Troy, forming a prominent division between the northern and southern parts of the town. The soil south of these bluffs is generally quite
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Sauk County, Wisconsin, containing an account of settlement, growth, development and resources ... biographical sketches ... the whole preceded by a history of Wisconsin1880 · page 341Read the page →
Read the text
In January, 1857, Town 13, Range 2, was set off from the town of Marston, the new town being called Woodland. In December of the same year, the town of Troy was organized out of the towns of Honey Creek and Spring Green. The organization of the town of Excelsior bears the same date, it having been formed out of the towns of Dellona and Freedom. The territory of the town, of Freedom was further abridged, about this time, by Sections 19, 20, 29, 30, 31 and 32 being attached to the town of Baraboo.
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
Spring Green, 1854 to 1996
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Spring Green post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Spring Green rank for history?
Spring Green is more historic than 73% 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 Spring Green?
Two places: the Rest Haven Motel (listed 2011) and the Samuel and Nina Marcus House (2018).
How old are the homes in Spring Green?
25% of Spring Green’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (3), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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