Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns · #426 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
Below: maps from 1960 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Prairie Township is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #426 of 593 in Indiana. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Prairie Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (22% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 Prairie Township’s history is told.
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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Prairie Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Prairie Township is one of thirteen townships in Henry County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2010 census, its population was 5,517 and it contained 1,346 housing units.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 5,517 to 5,999 (+9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Prairie Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
This office was located at the old town of Hillsboro, in the southeast corner of Prairie Township, two and a half miles northeast of New Castle. Hillsboro was once a thriving village, but now there is nothing left but a few straggling houses.
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 Prairie 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 Prairie Township.
Nobody well known was born in Prairie Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Prairie Township is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #426 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.
18% of Prairie Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), 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.
2012
