Sun Prairie’s post office opened in 1846, and 6 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #141 of 362 in Wisconsin. What drives it
Most of Sun Prairie was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1999. 6 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 26 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1870.
Founding year: the first Sun Prairie post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sun Prairie’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sun Prairie is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #141 of 362 in Wisconsin. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sun Prairie’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 Sun Prairie’s 8.0 sits above most of its state (72% of Wisconsin towns have fewer) while its 30 historic buildings outnumber those of 82% 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 (±1.1 points) is firm at this size. 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 Sun Prairie’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
President Martin Van Buren commissioned a party of 45 men, including Augustus A. Bird, to build a capital for the Territory of Wisconsin in Madison. The group left Milwaukee on May 26, 1837, and traveled for days in the rain. On June 9, the group emerged at the edge of the prairie and with the sun shining for the first time in days, carved the words "Sun Prairie" into a tree. Charles Bird returned to the area two years later and became the first settler.
The Town of Sun Prairie was created on February 2, 1846. The village of Sun Prairie, which grew from that town, was incorporated in an act of the Wisconsin legislature on March 6, 1868.
Passages that mention Sun Prairie, 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 828Read the page →
Read the text
The town of Sun Prairie, all the present towns of Bristol, Sun Prairie, Medina and Yorii, and ' the village of Sun Prairie ; the town ot Rome, all of what now constitutes Oregon, Fitchburg and Dunn ; the town of Albion, so much as is now Albion and Christiana ; Rutland is as first -constituted ; and so also is Dun-kirk, and the village of Stoughton. These six towns are usually designated as "the original towns of the county."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
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 610Read the page →
Read the text
This road, after leaving the city of Madison, takes a northeast direction to the village of Sun Prairie, traversing a portion of the towns of Blooming Grove, Burke and Sun Prairie, its course thence to the Jefferson County line is nearly due east, through the towns of Sun Prairie and Medina. The stations on the line of this road within Dane County, and their distances from the city of Madison, are as follows : Sun Prairie, twelve miles ; Deansville, eighteen miles ; Marshall, twenty miles.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Madison, the capital of Wisconsin1874 · page 396Read the page →
Read the text
from the south and runs northerly from Madison through the western part, passing into Columbia county; and the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad which enters on the south line in section 33, and runs north¬ easterly into the town of Sun Prairie. The town was first settled about 1841-2. Among the early residents were Horace Lawrence, Adam^Smith, and George H. Spalding.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Madison, Dane County and surrounding towns1877 · page 316Read the page →
Read the text
The township of Sun Prairie was organized in the year 1839, and included all that district which now constitutes the townships of York, Medina, Bristol and Sun Prairie. The first election, or town meeting, was held in the spring of 1840, at the house of Mr.
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
Sun Prairie, 1846 to 1995
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1894Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewBird's-Eye.View Sun Prairie ca.1875, c. 1875
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Sun Prairie’s page.
The Sun Prairie post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Sun Prairie rank for history?
Sun Prairie is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #141 of 362 in Wisconsin. 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 Sun Prairie?
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Dr. Charles G. Crosse House (listed 1993, the first), 1 historic district, the Sun Prairie Downtown Historic District, with 26 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 30 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Sun Prairie?
4% of Sun Prairie’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1999.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
2007
