Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns · #12 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
13 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 24 buildings. Below: maps from 1952 on and old-book passages.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Noble Township is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #12 of 593 in Indiana. All 2 inputs put Noble Township near the top nationally; its National Register listings ranks highest.
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 Noble Township’s 512 sits above most of its state (95% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 706 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% 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 Noble Township’s history is told.
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.
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 Noble Township.
The Teague Barn Wabash Importing Company Farm Stable was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Noble Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
But Noble Township was still considered much too large and Pleasant Township somewhat bulky. Consequently at the December term of the Board of County Conunissioners in 1872, the three southern tiers of sections were talvcn from Pleasant Township and the three northern, from Noble Township, to form Paw Paw. The township thus created was eiglit miles long east and west, and six miles wide, north and south.
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.
Weddings 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 Noble 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 Noble Township.
Nobody well known was born in Noble Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Noble Township is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #12 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.
13 listings: 1 building, among them the Teague Barn Wabash Importing Company Farm Stable (listed 2002, the first), and 1 historic district, the Josiah White’s Manual Labor Institute, with 24 contributing buildings. 706 historic buildings in all.
33% of Noble Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 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 (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.
