Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The Lithia Springs post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Salt Spring (1871), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 16% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lithia Springs is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #210 of 263 in Georgia. 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 Lithia 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.
Lithia Springs’s post office has been open since 1889. Another post office, Salt Spring, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lithia Springs’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1990 and 2000, then grew 8-fold.
5 censuses, 1980–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lithia Springs’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lithia Springs.
The history of the community began with Lithia Springs, a natural lithia water spring. So popular were the curative waters that flowed from Lithia Springs that people came for miles to drink it. The neighboring city of Austell was also founded due to the spring's popularity.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2026Lithia Springs Methodist Church
2026Dollar General
2025Veterans Memorial Highway
2025Post Office
2025Lithia Springs Public Library
2025Lithia Springs High School
2025Battle Hill Lodge 523
2016Red Cedar - panoramio (1)
2014George H Sparks Reservoir
2007SweetwaterCreekFlood2005
2007Ruins of the New Manchester Manufacturing Company Tex…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lithia 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 Lithia Springs.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lithia Springs post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lithia Springs is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #210 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.
2% of Lithia Springs’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.3 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1987.
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), 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) 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.
