Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns · #68 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Cairo was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 31 buildings. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1880.
The Cairo post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cairo is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #68 of 263 in Georgia. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Georgia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Georgia town has 10.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cairo’s 30.8 sits near the middle of its state (63% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 31 historic buildings outnumber those of 82% 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.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereJackie Robinson is born here
In the archiveA lumber planing mill. Cairo, Georgia
In the archiveGeorgia [Effingham County (part) - Newton County (part)
Born hereMickey Thomas is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereTeresa Edwards is born hereWriters, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cairo.
Cairo was founded in 1835. It was incorporated as a town in 1870 and as a city in 1906. In 1905, Cairo was designated seat of the newly formed Grady County. The city was named after Cairo, the capital of Egypt.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1939A lumber planing mill. Cairo, Georgia
1939A lumber planing mill. Cairo, Georgia
1939Highway signs by lumber planing mill. Cairo, Georgia
1939Stacks of lumber with tractor in planing mill. Cairo,…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: A lumber planing…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Stacks of lumber…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cairo. 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 Cairo.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.
1912Sheet 1 of 7Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Cairo’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 275 people in 1880 to 10,179 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cairo’s Wikipedia page.
Cairo’s post office has been open since 1832.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Cairo post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cairo is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns, #68 of 263 in Georgia. 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.
One place: the Cairo Commercial Historic District (listed 1994).
6% of Cairo’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.0 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (8), the Library of Congress (6), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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