Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 36 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1956 on and the census since 1910.
The Baconton post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Baconton’s history is told.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Baconton.
Baconton was incorporated in 1903. The community was named after Major Robert James Bacon, an original owner of the town site.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Baconton. 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 Baconton.
Between 391 and 915 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Baconton’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Baconton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Baconton’s post office has been open since 1870.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Baconton post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
5 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Bacon Family Homestead (listed 1983, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Baconton Commercial Historic District, the South Railroad Historic District and the Walton Street-Church Street Historic District, with 36 contributing buildings. 42 historic buildings in all.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, 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.
2015
2015
2015
2015
2015
2010
2005