Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns · #27 of 37 in Delaware. What drives it
Most of North Star was built recently: 0.6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Below: maps from 1901 on and the census since 2000.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, North Star is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #27 of 37 in Delaware. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Delaware towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Delaware town has 29.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so North Star’s 29.4 sits near the middle of its state (55% of Delaware towns have fewer) while its 23 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
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 North Star’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of North Star. 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 North Star.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of North Star yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
North Star is a census-designated place (CDP) in New Castle County, Delaware, United States. As of the 2020 census, North Star had a population of 8,056.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 7,980 in 2010, 8,056 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Between 7,980 and 8,277 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on North Star’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in North Star itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
North Star is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #27 of 37 in Delaware. 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.
9 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Mill Creek Friends Meetinghouse (listed 1973, the first). 23 historic buildings in all.
0.6% of North Star’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 5.9% for a Delaware town; the median home was built in 1988.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (9), 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.
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