Hanover Township’s post office opened in 1860, and 4 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns · #366 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Most of Hanover Township was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1939 on, and the census since 1870.
Founding year: the first Hanover Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hanover Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hanover Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #366 of 593 in Indiana. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hanover 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 Hanover Township’s 41.1 sits above most of its state (73% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 23 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
What stands out about Hanover Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
During the late eighteenth century, the area today known as the state of Indiana was a part of the Northwest Territory in the new United States. This large area west of the Appalachians and north of the Ohio River had been ceded by Great Britain after the Revolutionary War. It consisted of the area later organized as the states of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, and parts of Minnesota. At that time, there were few European settlements on the northern bank of the Ohio River, although French colonists had settled in the west Illinois Country along the Mississippi River. Kentucky, which developed on the southern banks of the Ohio, was originally considered part of Virginia. In 1792 it was granted statehood after becoming more densely settled by European Americans. Prior to the early nineteenth-century European-American settlement of the Hanover area, its predominant inhabita…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings 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 Hanover Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1939Madison West 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 Hanover Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewA history of Carmel Congregation of the United Presbyterian Church, 1882
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hanover Township’s page.
The Hanover Township post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Hanover Township rank for history?
Hanover Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #366 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 Hanover Township?
4 listings: 1 building, among them the Hendricks, Thomas A., Library (listed 1982, the first). 23 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Hanover Township?
8% of Hanover Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1974.
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), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
1978
1978
1978
