Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 24% of U.S. towns · #113 of 142 in Kentucky. What drives it
Most of Fort Wright was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1974. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 22 buildings. Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1950.
Fort Wright first appears in the census in 1950. Another post office, Honesty (1886), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 24% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fort Wright is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns, #113 of 142 in Kentucky. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Fort Wright’s 37.4 sits near the middle of its state (54% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 22 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 Fort Wright’s history is told.
Another post office, Honesty, 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 Fort Wright.
The area that is now Fort Wright was the site of one of the Civil War fortifications built for the Defense of Cincinnati. The city, incorporated in 1941, was named for Major General Horatio Gouverneur Wright, a Union Army engineer.
It annexed the neighboring communities of Lookout Heights in 1937, South Hills in 1949 and Lakeview in 1960.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fort Wright. 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 Fort Wright.
Between 594 and 6,570 people in every census since 1950.
8 censuses, 1950–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fort Wright’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Fort Wright post office opened in 1950, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Fort Wright is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns, #113 of 142 in Kentucky. 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.
One place: the Fort Mitchell Heights Historic District (listed 1989).
4% of Fort Wright’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 5.9% for a Kentucky 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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
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