Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Friendship was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Its Register listing is the Garrett’s Grocery Store. Below: maps from 1959 on and the census since 1940.
The Friendship post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Friendship’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Friendship yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Friendship is a town in Hot Spring County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, Friendship had a population of 158.
Its first post office opened in 1886. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 176 to 158 (-10%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Friendship.
1959Caddo Valley sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Friendship.
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.
Between 150 and 272 people in every census since 1940.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Friendship’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Friendship itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Friendship post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Garrett’s Grocery Store (listed 2023).
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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