Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #219 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
11 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 6 buildings. Below: maps from 1934 on.
The Shawswick Township post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Leatherwood (1838), Erie (1864) and Shawswick (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Shawswick Township is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #219 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 Shawswick Township’s 123 sits above most of its state (83% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 255 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Shawswick Township’s history is told.
Three 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).
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Shawswick Township.
Shawswick Township was established in 1818. The township was named from a combination of the surnames Shaw and Wick. Wick was the name of a judge and Shaw was the name of a war hero; the final name Shawswick was formed in a compromise.
The Helton-Mayo Farm was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 Shawswick 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 Shawswick Township.
Nobody well known was born in Shawswick Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Shawswick Township post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Shawswick Township is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #219 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.
11 listings: 1 historic district, the Helton-Mayo Farm, with 6 contributing buildings. 255 historic buildings in all.
28% of Shawswick Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.1 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1962.
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, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.
