Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns · #66 of 155 in Connecticut. What drives it
10 places in town are on the National Register, among them six historic districts with 169 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1840.
Mansfield dates its founding to 1702 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1840.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mansfield is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns, #66 of 155 in Connecticut. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
Connecticut towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Connecticut town has 73.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Mansfield’s 67.8 sits near the middle of its state (46% of Connecticut towns have fewer) while its 172 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
Mansfield had its own post office from 1808 to 1952. Nine 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mansfield’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mansfield. 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 Mansfield.
From Wikipedia’s history of Mansfield.
English settler-immigrants arrived in the area that is now Mansfield in the late 17th century. The Town of Mansfield was legally incorporated in 1702, and the Storrs family history dates back to that time. Samuel Storrs migrated from Nottinghamshire, England to Massachusetts in 1663, then moving to the area in 1698.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Mansfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
3. Nathaniel Bassett purchased land in that part of Wmdham which is now Msnsfield, Sept. 1, 1695. It was the north part of lot No. 3, at th« '-Ponds." He was admitted an inhabitant of Windham Nov. 4, 1695, was one of the patentees of the town of Mansfield Oct. 20, 1703, and evidently one of the prominent settlers. A bridge in South Mansfield is still called " Bassett's Bridge." The name has long since disappeared from Mansfield. He ni. 1st, Joanna Borden, Dec. 16, 1695 ; she d. Dec.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
James Allen, of Mansfield, lived in the north parish about three fourths of a mile from the four corners. Where he came from is not ascertained, and no record of his family is found in Mansfield records. His will is dated Oct. 13, 1781, proved Jan. 1, 1790. In it he names wife, Patience, and the following chil.: Ruth, who m. Bundy and went to Canada ; James, m. Irene Scripture, July 17, 1766, and had Levina, b. — 1768, Cynthia, b. March 15, 1771, recorded in Mansfield, after which he went to Walpole, N. H.; Aaron, also went to Walpole; John, not named
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveMansfield Center.Alternate Title: General view of Mansfield Center
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveEdwina Whitney, Librarian, University of Connecticut, 1916
BuiltMansfield Hollow Dam is built
In the archiveUSACE Mansfield Hollow Lake3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Mansfield’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 1,827 and 26,543 people in every census since 1840.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mansfield’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1702, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Mansfield’s post office opened in 1808, and the census of 1840 counted 2,276 people here.
Mansfield is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns, #66 of 155 in Connecticut. 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.
10 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Eleazer Williams House (listed 1971, the first), 6 historic districts with 169 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 172 historic buildings in all.
14% of Mansfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.0 points), against a typical 15% for a Connecticut town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (9), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (10), 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 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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