Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns · #64 of 187 in Alabama. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Southern Railway Depot. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1880.
Piedmont first appears in the census in 1880. Two smaller post offices, Goshen (1844) and Cross Plains (1851), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Piedmont is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #64 of 187 in Alabama. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 Piedmont’s 2.1 sits near the middle of its state (56% of Alabama towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Piedmont’s history is told.
Piedmont’s post office has been open since 1888. Two other post offices 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).
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 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Piedmont.
The area now known as Piedmont is a community that began in the early 1840s, located at the crossroads of two early post roads. Major Jacob Forney Dailey of North Carolina came to Alabama in 1848 and bought land in present-day Piedmont. Major Dailey named the area Cross Plains, and an official post office with that name was established on September 22, 1851.
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 - Calhoun County
Born hereKenneth A. Roberts is born here
Born hereWilliam E. Harbour is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archivePiedmont 19942 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Piedmont. 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 Piedmont.
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 Piedmont’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.
Between 381 and 5,544 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Piedmont’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Piedmont post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1888.
Piedmont is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #64 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.
One place: the Southern Railway Depot (listed 1984).
19% of Piedmont’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 3.2% for an Alabama town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (7), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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