Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns · #24 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it
20 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1986 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wayne Township is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #24 of 593 in Indiana. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Wayne Township’s 319 sits above most of its state (92% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 1,267 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% 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 Wayne 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Wayne Township.
The Forest Hills Country Club and Abram Gaar House and Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Wayne Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Wayne Township was one of the two townships of which Wayne County was composed in its organization in the year 1810. It was then in territory equal, if not larger than the present county. On the adoption of the State Constitution in 1816, a law was passed or a clause inserted in reference to the organizations of counties. Feb. 10, 1817, the county commissioners took action and divided what was then Wayne County into six municipal divisions, or townships. As Wayne
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wayne Township.
1986Dayton sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Wayne Township.
Nobody well known was born in Wayne Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Chester, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Wayne Township is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #24 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.
20 listings: 1 building, among them the Abram Gaar House and Farm (listed 1975, the first), and 1 site. 1,267 historic buildings in all.
28% of Wayne Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 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.
