Founding year: the first Demorest post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Demorest’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Demorest is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Demorest’s overall grade.
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 Demorest’s 39.8 sits above most of its state (65% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
The land where Demorest is now located was given by the State of Georgia to W. Stripling in 1829. Stripling did little with the land aside from maintaining a family farm. In 1840, the land was transferred to Dr. Paul Rossignol who built a summer home on the west side of Lake Demorest. That house became significant to the history of Demorest. Among other things, it was one of the first buildings used by Piedmont College, now Piedmont University, which was established in 1897.
Demorest was platted in 1890 as a temperance town, and named after William Jennings Demorest, a prohibition advocate. Georgia General Assembly incorporated the place as the "City of Demorest" in 1889.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Demorest post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Demorest rank for history?
Demorest is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Demorest?
Three places: the Pyle-Davis House (listed 2003), the Demorest Women's Club (2008) and the Demorest Commercial Historic District (1989).
How old are the homes in Demorest?
16% of Demorest’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.0 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1890
1892
1940
2005
