The Springdale post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Mount Vernon (1854), Riley (1882) and Klevenville (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 2,056176 years
How historic is Springdale?
B
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Springdale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Springdale’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Springdale is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Springdale’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 Springdale’s 64.2 sits above most of its state (91% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 14 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.3 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 Springdale’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The land that would become Springdale was first surveyed in 1832 and 1833. Settlement began around 1845, aided by good access via the Military Road. The Town of Springdale itself was established in 1848. The town was largely settled by the mid-1850s, filled with Americans from the Northeast and Midwest along with immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and Norway.
Passages that mention Springdale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Dane County, Wisconsin ... preceded by a history of Wisconsin, statistics of the state, and an abstract of its laws and constitution and of the Constitution of the United States1880 · page 879Read the page →
History of Dane County, Wisconsin ... preceded by a history of Wisconsin, statistics of the state, and an abstract of its laws and constitution and of the Constitution of the United States1880 · page 611Read the page →
Read the text
in the county by the Chicago & North-Western Company ; the Chicago & Tomah Railroad, and the Milwaukee & Madison Railway. The former enters the county from the west, in the extreme northwest corner of the town of Blue Mounds, runs through the northern part of that town and the town of Springdale, south to the center of the town of Verona, then northeast through the northwest corner of the town of Fitchburg, and terminates in the southeast corner of the town of Madison, where it strikes the Chicago & North-Western.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin1874 · page 408Read the page →
Read the text
The Township of Springdale is located in the southwestern part of .the county, known as township 6 north, of range 7 east. It is watered by the west branch of Sugar river and numerous tributa¬ ries.
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
Springdale, 1849 to 1940
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Springdale post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Springdale rank for history?
Springdale is more historic than 63% 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 Springdale?
Three places: the John Sweet Donald Farmstead (listed 1984), the Aslak Lie Cabin (1986) and the Eric and Jerome Skindrud Farm (1994).
How old are the homes in Springdale?
12% of Springdale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.3 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 2001.
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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, 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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