Most of Georgetown was built recently: 0.9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977. Its Register listing is the Georgetown Civil War Armory. Below: maps from 1891 on and the census since 2000.
Founding year: the first Georgetown post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Georgetown’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Georgetown is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Georgetown’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Georgetown’s 4.2 sits above most of its state (86% of California towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share (±1.3 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
What stands out about Georgetown’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Founded August 7, 1849, by George Phipps and party, Georgetown was nicknamed "Growlersburg" due to the heavy, gold-laden quartz rocks that "growled" in the miners' pants as they walked around town. Georgetown is named for George Washington. The first post office was established in 1851.
After a disastrous fire in 1852, the old town was moved from the canyon in lower Main Street to its present site, and, unique in early-day planning, Main Street was laid out 100 feet (30 m) wide, with side streets 60 feet (18 m). After this new reconstruction, the residents of the city proclaimed their town as the "Pride of the Mountains".
Passages that mention Georgetown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Rowley, anciently including Bradford, Boxford, and Georgetown, from the year 1639 to the present time1840 · page 396Read the page →
Read the text
Rowley was divided into four School Districts. Since then some of those districts have been divided and subdivided, so that there are now in the town of Rowley four, and in the the town of Georgetown seven, school districts. For many years, the town appointed a committee to hire Teachers for all the Schools ; latterly, they authorize each district to hire their own.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Rowley, anciently including Bradford, Boxford, and Georgetown, from the year 1639 to the present time1840 · page 413Read the page →
Read the text
Between 1730 and 1740, Deacon Abner Spofford erected the first saw-mill at the place where William Spofford's sawmill now stands, in Georgetown, which has been in use a portion of each year to the present time. Colonel Daniel Spofford and his sons, soon after the year 17S0, erected a grist-mill in connexion with said saw-mill, which was kept in use a portion of each year, for about 40 years, and then taken down.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Georgetown’s post office has been open since 1851.
Hamlets and corners on the map
BuckeyeBuffalo HillFornis
Gone or out of use
Beebe Minemine
1cemetery inside Georgetown
Georgetown Pioneer
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Georgetown’s history
What year was Georgetown founded?
The Georgetown post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Georgetown rank for history?
Georgetown is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Georgetown?
One place: the Georgetown Civil War Armory (listed 2017).
How old are the homes in Georgetown?
0.9% of Georgetown’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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