Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel. Most of Ninilchik was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1917 on.
The Ninilchik post office opened in 1925, the earliest record of the town by name.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ninilchik.
Before the arrival of Europeans in Alaska, Ninilchik was a Dena'ina Athabaskan lodging area used for hunting and fishing. The name Ninilchik probably derives from Niqnilchint, a Deni'ana Athabaskan word meaning "lodge is built place".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Ninilchik’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Ninilchik itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Ninilchik post office opened in 1925, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel (listed 1978).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1917
1990
1990
