Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Rush County Bridge No. 188. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1959 on, and the census since 1890.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Anderson Township is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Anderson Township’s 9.7 sits near the middle of its state (62% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
From Wikipedia’s history of Anderson Township.
The Rush County Bridge No. 188 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Anderson Township’s history is told.
Passages that mention Anderson Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
fine sand incorporated with the orange clay, in parts of Richland, Noble, Union and Washington townships, give it many of the physical characters of loess. Ten feet will cover its average thickness in Anderson Township, that gradually grows heavier on the north, until it will measure thirtv feet or more. Near the southeast corner of the county, the yellow clay is very thin; and over the line in Franklin County it fails as a factor of the Drift period, and leaves the blue clay exposed as the surface clay.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Anderson Township. 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 Anderson Township.
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 Anderson Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 1,247 and 1,602 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Anderson Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Anderson Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Williamston, 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.
Anderson Township is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns. 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.
One place: the Rush County Bridge No. 188 (listed 2000).
50% of Anderson Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±15.0 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1940.
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 the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
Date?
Date?
Date?
Date?
Date?
