Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Warren LeMay · CC BY-SA 2.0More historic than 93% of U.S. towns · #114 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1956 on, and the census since 1850.
Brookville Township dates its founding to 1808 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1850.
More historic than 93% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brookville Township is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #114 of 593 in Indiana. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Brookville Township’s 1,159 sits above most of its state (99% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 665 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Brookville Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Whitcomb, 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveHome of Clarksons in Brookville, Indiana (The Midland Monthly Magazine, January 1894) (cr…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Brookville Township.
Brookville was platted in 1808 by Thomas Manwarring. The town derives its name from Brooks, the maiden name of a settler's mother. A post office has been in operation at Brookville since 1816.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brookville 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 Brookville 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 Brookville 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 1,177 and 2,980 people in every census since 1850.
17 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brookville Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1808, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Brookville Township’s post office opened in 1813, and the census of 1850 counted 1,177 people here.
Brookville Township is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #114 of 593 in Indiana. 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.
4 listings: 1 building, among them the Little Cedar Grove Baptist Church (listed 1990, the first). 665 historic buildings in all.
19% of Brookville Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (5), 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) 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.
1894
2023
2023
2005
