Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns · #243 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 535 buildings. Below: maps from 1928 on and the census since 1880.
Greendale dates its founding to 1852 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 79% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greendale is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #243 of 593 in Indiana. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Greendale’s 1,342 sits above most of its state (99% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 535 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greendale’s history is told.
Greendale had its own post office from 1882 to 1883. 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Greendale.
Greendale was laid out in 1852, but the plat was not recorded until 1883. Greendale likely took its name from Greendale Cemetery.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Greendale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
population and importance, saw that a larger and more desirable location was needed. Accordingly a number of the citizens of Lawrenceburg organ¬ ized and purchased thirty acres of ground from Joseph Hayes north of the town of Greendale (now a part of the village) ; on a beautifully located high bottom overlooking the valley. It was tastefully laid out by Benjamin Grove, an engineer from Louisville, Kentucky, and the landscape planning was done by a Mr. Ihle, who was an artist in such matters. The articles of association of the original incorporation in their first two sections state the object as
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
While devoted to his manufacturing interests to a degree that can only be measured by his success, he has been interested in the growth of the town of Greendale to the extent of installing an electric light plant and waterworks, not with pecuniary success of these ventures as his first consideration, but that the citizens might enjoy these conveniences and that others might be attracted to take up their homes here with the assurance of good light and water service.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Greendale. 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 Greendale.
Grew from 286 people in 1880 to 4,602 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Greendale’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1852, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Greendale’s post office opened in 1837, and the census of 1880 counted 286 people here.
Greendale is more historic than 79% of U.S. towns, #243 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.
One place: the Greendale Historic District (listed 2019).
19% of Greendale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.9 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 National Register of Historic Places (1), 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), 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.
