Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Wiltrout, Maria and Franklin, Polygonal Barn. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1955 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fairfield Township is more historic than 82% 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 Fairfield Township’s 8.1 sits near the middle of its state (60% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fairfield Township’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Fairfield Township.
The Maria and Franklin Wiltrout Polygonal Barn was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Fairfield Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
lime on till 1850 lived in different places in Ohio, the last being Sugar Creek, where he bought a home and remained seven years. In 1S50 he moved to De Kalb County, Ind., and bought eighty acres of wild land in Fairfield Township, which he has cleared, and now has a good farm. He has worked at his trade in addition to caring for his farm, and will long be remembered as the pioneer blacksmith of Fairfield Township. He has, by his many years of upright and honorable dealing, won the con-
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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield 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 Fairfield 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.
Nobody well known was born in Fairfield Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Fairfield Center, 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.
Fairfield Township is more historic than 82% 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 Wiltrout, Maria and Franklin, Polygonal Barn (listed 1993).
29% of Fairfield Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.4 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1981.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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?
