6 of Guilford Township’s places are on the National Register
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns · #333 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Most of Guilford Township was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: maps from 1953 on and old-book passages.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Guilford Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #333 of 593 in Indiana. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Guilford Township’s overall grade.
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 Guilford Township’s 52.5 sits above most of its state (75% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 185 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share (±1.0 points) is firm at this size.
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 →
What stands out about Guilford Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Guilford was the first settled township in Hendricks County. In 1820 Samuel Herriman, James Dunn, Bat Ramsey, Harris Bay, John W. Bryant, and George Moore settled on White Lick Creek near the Morgan County line. Many of the first settlers to arrive in the township were Quakers from Guilford County, North Carolina, and named the township after their old home.
The Joel Jessup Farm, Noah and Hannah Hadley Kellum House, Kellum-Jessup-Chandler Farm, and Sugar Grove Meetinghouse and Cemetery are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Passages that mention Guilford Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Hendricks County, Indiana1885 · page 276Read the page →
Read the text
practice of law continuously for more than fifty years, until his death, in 1884. In the summer of 1823, two school-houses were built in the county, one in Liberty Township, below Cartersburg, and the other on Thomas Lockhart’s land, in Guilford Township. These were the first school-houses in Hendricks County, and in them, the same fall, W. H. Hinton and Abijah Pierson taught the first schools of the county.
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.
Timeline
Guilford Township, 1868 to 1953
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 Guilford Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1953Plainfield sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Guilford Township.
Famous people
Famous people close to Guilford Township
Nobody well known was born in Guilford Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Guilford Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #333 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.
What is on the National Register in Guilford Township?
6 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Noah and Hannah Hadley Kellum House (listed 1995, the first). 185 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Guilford Township?
4% of Guilford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 (2), 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.
