Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 11% of U.S. towns · #224 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Holly Springs was built recently: 0.3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2009. Below: maps from 1961 on and the census since 1910.
The Holly Springs post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 11% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Holly Springs is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns, #224 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 Holly 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 Holly Springs’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Holly Springs.
The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the place in 1906 as the Town of Holly Springs. According to tradition, the city was named from a stand of holly trees near a spring at the original town site.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2026Holly Springs United Methodist Church
2026Badger Creek
2025The Hardin House
2025S and J Kitchen, Woodstock GA
2025First Baptist Church of
2025Depot
2021Suburbs in
2021Lyndon Academy March 2021
2021Holly Springs, a suburb of Cherokee County, Georgia
2017Northside Hospital in Holly Springs, Georgia May 2017
2017Holly Springs Parkway, Holly Springs, Georgia Dec 2017
2015Holly Springs, Georgia train depotEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Holly 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 Holly Springs.
Grew from 251 people in 1910 to 16,213 in 2020, more than tenfold.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Holly Springs’ Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Holly Springs itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Holly Springs post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Holly Springs is more historic than 11% of U.S. towns, #224 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.
0.3% of Holly Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 2009.
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 (12), 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.
