2 of St. Simons’ places are on the National Register
More historic than 31% of U.S. towns · #164 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Strachan House Garage and the US Coast Guard Station-St. Simons Island. Most of St. Simons was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Its Register listings are the Strachan House Garage and the US Coast Guard Station-St. Simons Island. Below: maps from 1945 on and the census since 1950.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, St. Simons is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #164 of 263 in Georgia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of St. Simons’ overall grade.
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 St. Simons’ 4.3 sits near the middle of its state (44% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 points) is firm at this size.
Founding year: our sources. 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 →
What stands out about St. Simons’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Cannon's Point, on the north end of St. Simons Island, is an archaeological site that includes a Late Archaic shell ring. The Cannon's Point site has yielded evidence of occupation by Native Americans since at least as early as the appearance of ceramics in the southeastern United States. Milanich lists the succession of periods at Cannon's Point as: Sapelo Period (2500–1000 BC); ceramics related to those of the Stallings culture of the Savannah River valley and Orange period of northern Florida; Refuge Period (1000–500 BC); Deptford Periods (500 BC to AD 700); Wilmington Period (700–1000); St. Catherine's Period (1000–1250); Savannah Periods (1250–1540); Pine Harbor Period (1540–1625), where European artifacts appear in the archaeological record in this period; and Sutherland Bluff Period (1625–1680), where Native American occupation of Cannon's Point seems to have ended during this pe…
St. Simons is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #164 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.
What is on the National Register in St. Simons?
Two places: the Strachan House Garage (listed 1997) and the US Coast Guard Station-St. Simons Island (1998).
How old are the homes in St. Simons?
2% of St. Simons’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1988.
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
