Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns · #69 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 555 buildings between them. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1905 on, and the census since 1930.
Homewood first appears in the census in 1930. Another post office, Rosedale (1894), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Homewood is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #69 of 187 in Alabama. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Alabama towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Alabama town has 2.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Homewood’s 200 sits above most of its state (91% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 557 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The 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.
Another post office, Rosedale, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Homewood. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Homewood.
From Wikipedia’s history of Homewood.
Homewood avoided the worst of the turmoil associated with the Civil Rights Movement and, more specifically, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's 1963 Birmingham campaign. However, in September 1963, a racially motivated bombing in the Rosedale District.
Hollywood is a former town annexed into Homewood, Alabama, in 1929.
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.
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jefferson County - Homewood - ED 37-82,…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereKaty Freels is born here
Born hereAmeer Abdullah is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
18801950 Census Enumeration District Maps - Alabama - Jef…
2025Johnny's Greek And Three
2025Bayou La Batre cornmeal fried shrimp with chile de ár…
2011West Oxmoor and West Lakeshore Parkway (facing north)
2011State Farm Parkway facing west
2011Parking lot in front of the Verizon Store facing east
2010Chicken salad croissant at Collage Catering
2004Piggly Wiggly
2004ALMap-doton-HomewoodNo 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 Homewood’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 6,103 people in 1930 to 26,414 in 2020, 4 times over.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Homewood’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
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 Homewood post office opened in 1930, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Homewood is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns, #69 of 187 in Alabama. 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.
4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Jefferson County Courthouse (listed 1982, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Rosedale Historic District and the Hollywood Historic District, with 555 contributing buildings. 557 historic buildings in all.
12% of Homewood’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1967.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (15), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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) 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.
