Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #60 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Hawkinsville was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. 8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 92 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1870.
Hawkinsville dates its founding to 1830 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hawkinsville is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #60 of 263 in Georgia. Its National Register listings hold 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 Hawkinsville’s 211 sits above most of its state (80% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 100 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Hawkinsville’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.
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 year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hawkinsville.
Hawkinsville was founded in 1830, and in 1836, it replaced Hartford as the county seat of Pulaski County. The city was named after Colonel Benjamin Hawkins, a Senator and Delegate to the Continental Congress from North Carolina. After the war ended, he was appointed Indian agent in charge of affairs south of the Ohio River by George Washington.
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.
BuiltHawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveDETAIL OF PIVOT PIER. - Ocmulgee River Bridge, Spanning Ocmulgee RiverOne decade in the archive so far: the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hawkinsville. 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 Hawkinsville.
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 Hawkinsville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 813 and 4,589 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hawkinsville’s Wikipedia page.
Hawkinsville’s post office has been open since 1831.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
In 1830, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Hawkinsville’s post office opened in 1831, and the census of 1870 counted 813 people here.
Hawkinsville is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #60 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.
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Hawkinsville City Hall-Auditorium (listed 1973, the first), and 1 historic district, the Hawkinsville Commercial and Industrial Historic District, with 92 contributing buildings. 100 historic buildings in all.
4% of Hawkinsville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, 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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