Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: FloNight (Sydney Poore) and Russell Poore · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 93% of U.S. towns · #7 of 142 in Kentucky. What drives it
36 places in town are on the National Register, among them six historic districts with 197 buildings between them. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1800.
Harrodsburg dates its founding to 1774 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.
More historic than 93% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Harrodsburg is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #7 of 142 in Kentucky. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Harrodsburg’s 248 sits above most of its state (85% of Kentucky towns have fewer) while its 231 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1886Sheet 1 of 5Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Harrodsburg.
Harrodstown (originally called Harrod's Town) was laid out and founded by James Harrod on June 16, 1774. Harrod led a company of adventurers totaling 31 men, beginning in the spring of 1774 at Fort Redstone in Pennsylvania down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers in canoes and through a series of other rivers and creeks to the town's present-day location.
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.
Born hereWilliam Logan is born hereBuiltCardwellton is built
Born hereJohn Burton Thompson is born here
Born hereBeriah Magoffin is born here
In the archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Kentucky - Mercer County - Harrodsburg - ED 84-12…
Born hereAl Wilson is born here
In the archiveHistoric American Buildings Survey Theodore Webb, Photographer, Feb. 2, 1934 INTERIOR (WE…
In the archiveHistoric American Buildings Survey Lester Jones, Photographer August 23, 1940 VIEW FROM N…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harrodsburg. 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 Harrodsburg.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Harrodsburg’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 122 people in 1800 to 9,064 in 2020, more than tenfold.
22 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Harrodsburg’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1774, according to Wikidata. Harrodsburg’s post office opened in 1794, and the census of 1800 counted 122 people here.
Harrodsburg is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns, #7 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.
36 listings: 28 buildings, among them the Morgan Row (listed 1973, the first), 6 historic districts with 197 contributing buildings, and 2 objects. 231 historic buildings in all.
14% of Harrodsburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 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 (6), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (36), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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