Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #47 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 900 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1870.
The Quitman post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Quitman is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #47 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 Quitman’s 2,250 sits above most of its state (100% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 914 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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 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 Quitman.
Quitman was designated the county seat of the newly formed Brooks County in 1858. It was incorporated as a town in 1859 and as a city in 1904. As the county seat, it was the center of trading in the county, which was devoted to cotton plantations before and after the American Civil War. The community was named for John A. Quitman, a hero of the Mexican–American War.
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.
BuiltBethlehem Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery is built
In the archiveHistoric Map - Quitman, GA - 1885
In the archiveMabbett Groover Melon Exchange Cover to Detroit - 1889-06-03 - obverse
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Quitman. 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 Quitman.
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 Quitman’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 784 and 5,292 people in every census since 1870.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Quitman’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Quitman’s post office has been open since 1859.
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 Quitman post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Quitman is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #47 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Henry Gray Turner House and Grounds (listed 1980, the first), and 1 historic district, the Quitman Historic District, with 900 contributing buildings. 914 historic buildings in all.
15% of Quitman’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1977.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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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