Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 42% of U.S. towns · #134 of 263 in Georgia. What drives it
Most of Winder was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1998. 11 places in town are on the National Register, among them five historic districts with 142 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1896 on and the census since 1890.
Winder first appears in the census in 1890. Two smaller post offices, Jug Tavern (1872) and Brandon (1890), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 42% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Winder is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #134 of 263 in Georgia. Its National Register listings hold 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 Winder’s 76.7 sits above most of its state (69% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 149 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 Winder’s history is told.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Winder. 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 Winder.
From Wikipedia’s history of Winder.
The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Winder in 1893. The community was named after John H. Winder who served as a General in the Confederate Army. Before Winder was named Winder it was originally named Jug Tavern.
The first hotel of the Jameson Inn chain opened in Winder in 1987.
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.
BuiltOmer Christian Church and Cemetery is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
20242024 Eclipse Shadows
2022Downtown Winder at Night
2021Jug Tavern Park
2017Tiny Tree Frog (Unsplash)
2015Gainesville Midland Railroad cars
2015Fort Yargo furnaces
2015Fort Yargo
2015Downtown
2015Downtown Winder - panoramio (1)
2015Barrow County museum
20102010 Census Urban Cluster Reference Map forBook
2005GAMap-doton-WinderFire 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.
1903Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Grew from 202 people in 1890 to 18,338 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Winder’s Wikipedia page.
Winder’s post office has been open since 1894. Two other post offices 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Winder post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Winder is more historic than 42% of U.S. towns, #134 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.
11 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Winder Depot (listed 1979, the first), 5 historic districts with 142 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 149 historic buildings in all.
2% of Winder’s 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 1998.
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 (11), Wikipedia, 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.
