Most of Cannonsburg was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1965. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1953 on.
Founding year: the first Cannonsburg post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Cannonsburg’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cannonsburg is more historic than 9% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cannonsburg’s overall grade.
Kentucky towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kentucky town has 29.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cannonsburg’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (12% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±2.9 points) is firm at this size. 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 Cannonsburg’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cannonsburg yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cannonsburg is a census-designated place (CDP) in Boyd County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 census, Cannonsburg had a population of 862. Cannonsburg is located 8 miles (13 km) southwest of the city of Ashland, a major urban center in northeastern Kentucky. Most of Cannonsburg shares its ZIP code with Ashland; however, parts are within the Catlettsburg ZIP code. The Cannonsburg post office closed in 1929. Cannonsburg is a part of the Huntington-Ashland Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). As of the 2010 census, the MSA had a population of 287,702. New definitions from February 28, 2013, placed the population at 363,000.
Its first post office opened in 1850. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 856 in 2010, 862 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Cannonsburg, 1850 to 1953
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born 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.
Cannonsburg had its own post office from 1850 to 1932.
Cannonsburg
1850–1932
18501940today
1cemetery inside Cannonsburg
Eastham
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Cannonsburg’s history
What year was Cannonsburg founded?
The Cannonsburg post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cannonsburg rank for history?
Cannonsburg is more historic than 9% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Cannonsburg?
0.0% of Cannonsburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.9 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Kentucky town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (3), 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.
2014
2002
