Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1882.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Clarksburg’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Clarksburg is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Clarksburg’s overall grade.
Massachusetts towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Massachusetts town has 46.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Clarksburg’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (3% of Massachusetts 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 B− to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.1 points). Two sources give 1764.
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 →
What stands out about Clarksburg’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Clarksburg was first settled in 1764 and officially incorporated in 1798.
Captain Matthew Ketchum, Colonel William Bullock, and Nicholas Clark are credited with settling the area in 1769; Clark later became Clarksburg's namesake. The town began as a mostly agrarian community, with mills springing up along the waterways in the nineteenth century. The major mills were one to make cashmere, and several mills supplied gunpowder during the Civil War. However, the industry was stopped by the town after one of the mills exploded in 1869.
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.
In 1764, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Clarksburg’s post office opened in 1882, and the census of 1850 counted 384 people here.
How does Clarksburg rank for history?
Clarksburg is more historic than 78% 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 Clarksburg?
38% of Clarksburg’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.1 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1955.
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), 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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