Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns · #120 of 155 in Connecticut. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Cosier-Murphy House and the Williams House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1790.
New Fairfield dates its founding to 1740 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, New Fairfield is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #120 of 155 in Connecticut. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 New Fairfield’s 2.2 sits below most of its state (1% of Connecticut towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% 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.
New Fairfield had its own post office from 1827 to 1901. 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how New Fairfield’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1800 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on New Fairfield’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of New Fairfield.
In pre-colonial times, the indigenous people of New Fairfield were part of an alliance of tribes that extended from the source of the Housatonic to the sea.
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.
BuiltWilliams House is built
In the archiveCandlewood-supply-co
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveKnoll Crest, Lake Candlewood, Conn (69299)
Born hereJake Ceresna is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2025Candlewood Isle Post Office
2024Taylor Corners
2022KnollcrestWindmill
2022Candlewood-corner-road-sign
2021Candlewood Lake Island House
2017Waterfall
2017Reds
2017Redleafstream
2017Leaf
2017Houseinwoods
2017Falls
2017Berries
2016NewFairfieldCT WilliamsHouse
2016NewFairfieldCT TownHall
2016NewFairfieldCT CosierMurphyHouse
2012Squantz Pond early morning autumn
2010New Fairfield CT lg
2008Star Castle
2007Connecticut Town History Sign
2007Connecticut Town History Sign
2004US-CT-NewFairfieldEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of New Fairfield. 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 New Fairfield.
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 New Fairfield’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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1740, according to Wikidata. New Fairfield’s post office opened in 1827, and the first U.S. census counted 1,573 people here in 1790.
New Fairfield is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #120 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.
Two places: the Cosier-Murphy House (listed 1991) and the Williams House (2014).
13% of New Fairfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 15% for a Connecticut town; the median home was built in 1969.
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 (23), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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) 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.
