Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #73 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Montezuma was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1969. 3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 269 buildings. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1880.
The Montezuma post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Montezuma is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #73 of 263 in Georgia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age 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 Montezuma’s 920 sits above most of its state (95% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 273 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% 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 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 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Peaked at 4,830 in 1980; 3,047 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Montezuma’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Montezuma.
Montezuma had its start in 1851, when the railroad was extended to that point. The city was named after the famous Aztec leader by soldiers returning from the Mexican American War and was incorporated in 1854.
Montezuma is home to a thriving Mennonite community, founded when 10 to 15 Mennonite families moved from Virginia in the 1950s.
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.
In the archiveChopping cotton, near Montezuma, Georgia
In the archiveGeorgia [Effingham County (part) - Newton County (part)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1939Chopping cotton, near Montezuma, Georgia
1939Chopping cotton near Montezuma, Georgia
1939Row of tenant houses on plantation near Montezuma, Ge…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Chopping cotton,…
1939Rolling store which goes from door to door selling gr…
1939Rolling store which goes from door to door selling gr…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Rolling store wh…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Montezuma. 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 Montezuma.
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 Montezuma’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Montezuma’s post office has been open since 1852.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Montezuma post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Montezuma is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #73 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.
Three places: the Montezuma Depot (listed 1980), the Montezuma Historic District (2003) and the DeVaughn-Lewis House (1985).
10% of Montezuma’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1969.
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), the Library of Congress (7), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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), 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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