Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #37 of 123 in Arkansas. What drives it
Most of Berryville was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 40 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1880.
Berryville dates its founding to 1850 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Berryville is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #37 of 123 in Arkansas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Arkansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Arkansas town has 20.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Berryville’s 77.1 sits above most of its state (80% of Arkansas towns have fewer) while its 44 historic buildings outnumber those of 84% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Berryville’s history is told.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Berryville. 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 Berryville.
From Wikipedia’s history of Berryville.
Berryville was founded by local settler Blackburn Henderson Berry in 1850; his nephew James Henderson Berry would become the fourteenth governor of Arkansas in 1883. The city was incorporated in 1876.
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.
Born hereHenry D. Ross is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveA rural scene in the beautiful Ozarks (80267)One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
1897Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Berryville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 253 people in 1880 to 5,682 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Berryville’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
In 1850, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Berryville’s post office opened in 1852, and the census of 1880 counted 253 people here.
Berryville is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #37 of 123 in Arkansas. 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Carroll County Courthouse, Eastern District (listed 1976, the first), and 1 historic district, the Berryville Commercial Historic District, with 40 contributing buildings. 44 historic buildings in all.
8% of Berryville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 3.1% for an Arkansas town; the median home was built in 1983.
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 (4), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
c. 1930
2011
2006