Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns · #55 of 155 in Connecticut. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 877 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1810.
Vernon dates its founding to 1808 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1810.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Vernon is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #55 of 155 in Connecticut. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings 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 Vernon’s 290 sits above most of its state (83% of Connecticut towns have fewer) while its 886 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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.
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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Vernon’s history is told.
Vernon had its own post office from 1812 to 1977. Four 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Vernon.
Vernon was incorporated in October 1808, from Bolton. Vernon was named after George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. Vernon contains the former city of Rockville, incorporated in January 1889 and consolidated in January 1965.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Vernon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
the original frame of the Vernon meeting-house. The Frank was erected and started with six sets of cassimere machines in 1847. This building, architecturally the finest in the village, was consumed by fire Sept. 1851.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Soon after Allan's return from Stillwater, he purchased a tract of land in Vernon, then North Bolton, Conn., but afterward lived with his son Alexander, in Bolton, about eight years. In 1779 he with his son removed to the Wheaton Place, a mile N. E. of Vernon, where he died April 9, 1786, and was buried in the old cemetery in the eastern part of Vernon.
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.
Born hereRussell Trall is born here
In the archive1835 ThanksgivingBall
Born hereEliza Talcott is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGroup of shed workers at Wetstone farm, 14 of them were 12 to 14 yrs. old. Location: Vern…
In the archiveOld Rockville High School (1922 postcard)
In the archiveMt. Vernon Motor Court, Vernon, Conn (87695)4 decades in the archive, from the 1830s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Vernon. 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 Vernon.
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 Vernon’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 827 people in 1810 to 30,215 in 2020, more than tenfold.
22 censuses, 1810–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Vernon’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.
In 1808, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Vernon’s post office opened in 1812, and the census of 1810 counted 827 people here.
Vernon is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #55 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 Florence Mill (listed 1978, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Minterburn Mill, the Rockville Historic District and the Talcottville Historic District, with 877 contributing buildings. 886 historic buildings in all.
16% of Vernon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 15% for a Connecticut town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 (5), 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), 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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