On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wausau is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Wausau’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 Wausau’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.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.6 points).
Founding year: our sources. 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 Wausau’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
This area has for millennia changed hands between various indigenous peoples. The Ojibwe (also known in the United States as the Chippewa) occupied it in the period of European encounter. They had a lucrative fur trade for decades with French colonists and French Canadians. After the French and Indian War this trade was dominated by British-American trappers from the eastern seaboard.
Passages that mention Wausau, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 260Read the page →
Read the text
But it was not always thus. The present appearance of Wausau is the growth of over sixty years, counting only from the organization of Marathon county as a political entity in 1850, remembering, however, that the pinery here was invaded in 1839 and saw mills existed and had their beginning in 1840. The slowness of the growth of Wausau in the first twenty years from 1840 to i860 is apparent from the vote cast for president in the last year mentioned, which was only 247 in the whole town of Wausau, which included the village, the Little Rib mill settlement, and the farmers
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Marathon County, Wisconsin1913 · page 157Read the page →
Read the text
"That there shall be a station on said railroad in range 6 or range 7 in township 26 and said line of railroad shall touch at a point and have a station within threefourths of a mile of Little Bull Falls in the town of Mosinee and from said point on the most feasible and direct route to the city of Wausau aforesaid, and have a station and depot at said city of Wausau within three-fourths of a mile of the courthouse on the east side of the Wisconsin river, provided the right of way is furnished free to said company one hundred feet in width within and through the limits of said city. That active operations shall be commenced upon the building and construction of said line of railroad within
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
Wausau, 1889 to 2001
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wausau is more historic than 44% 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.
How old are the homes in Wausau?
18% of Wausau’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Wisconsin town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 Wikidata (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.
