Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0More historic than 36% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Franklin Springs was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1959 on, and the census since 1930.
The Franklin Springs post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Franklin Springs is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Franklin Springs’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (16% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Franklin Springs’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1980 and 1990, then more than doubled.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Franklin Springs’ Wikipedia page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveGeorgia [Effingham County (part) - Newton County (part)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Franklin Springs.
Franklin Springs began in the 19th century as a resort spa, with the city incorporating in 1924.
The Franklin Springs Institute opened there in 1919 as a high school, eventually shifting to postsecondary education and changing its name to Emmanuel College in 1939.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Franklin Springs. 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 Franklin Springs.
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 Franklin Springs’ page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Franklin Springs itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Franklin Springs post office opened in 1849, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Franklin Springs is more historic than 36% 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.
4% of Franklin Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.3 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (9), 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.
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