Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns · #82 of 155 in Connecticut. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Portland Brownstone Quarries, a National Historic Landmark, and two historic districts with 30 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1850.
The Portland post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Chatham (1827), West Chatham (1827) and Chatham (1851), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Portland is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #82 of 155 in Connecticut. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Portland’s 38.2 sits below most of its state (33% of Connecticut towns have fewer) while its 36 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Portland’s post office has been open since 1841. Five 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 Portland’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Portland. 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 Portland.
From Wikipedia’s history of Portland.
The Wangunk tribe lived in the area prior to European settlement, and lived in Portland continuously throughout the settler period. Wangunk descendants still live in the area today. Their name referred to the bend in the Connecticut River which curves around half of the town's perimeter.
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 herePerry Hale is born here
Born hereMyron Cady Cramer is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveTown Hall and Library
In the archivePostcardWillowIslandPortlandCt1910
Born hereNancy McKinstry is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2022Valley Oil from Arrigoni Bridge 1, 2022-4-15
2022Portland sign, 2022-4-15
2022Portland Senior Center van, 2022-4-15
2022Portland Main Street facing town hall, 2022-4-15
2022Patriot Front sticker in Portland, CT, 2022-4-15
2022Leaving Portland sign, 2022-4-15
2022Brownstone quarry and Arrigoni Bridge, 2022-4-15
2022Arrigoni Bridge from Portland, 2022-4-15
2022Agogliati Field, 2022-4-15
2020Connecticut - Portland Brownstone Quarries
2015Winter in
2015Autumn in New England
2010Portland CT lg
2007BrainerdQuarryPortlandCTNo 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 Portland’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 2,836 and 9,508 people in every census since 1850.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Portland’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Portland post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Portland is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #82 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.
6 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Williams and Stancliff Octagon Houses (listed 1976, the first), 2 historic districts, the Indian Hill Avenue Historic District and the Marlborough Street Historic District, with 30 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 36 historic buildings in all.
24% of Portland’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 15% for a Connecticut town; the median home was built in 1961.
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 (17), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.
c. 1907
1911