Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #64 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
10 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 45 buildings between them. Below: 16 old photos and papers, maps from 1887 on, and the census since 1850.
Clinton dates its founding to 1653 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1850.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Clinton is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #64 of 283 in Massachusetts. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 Clinton’s 49.5 sits near the middle of its state (49% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 77 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% 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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltBowers School is built
BuiltWoodlawn Cemetery is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereClarence Brown is born here
In the archiveSeal of Clinton, Massachusetts (1892)
Born hereAgnes Moorehead is born here
In the archiveRelocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Andrew Leinhardt's hennery, Clinton, Mass., Ap…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clinton. 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 Clinton.
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.
1888Sheet 1 of 6Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Clinton.
Clinton was first settled in 1654 as a part of Lancaster after the land was deeded by Sachem Sholan of the Nashaway in 1643. It was officially incorporated as a separate town on March 14, 1850, and named after the DeWitt Clinton Hotel in New York, a favorite place of the town's founders, Erastus Brigham Bigelow and his brother Horatio.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Clinton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
and thence South 48 deg. 30 min. West 783 rods to a town bound on the westerly line of said town near the Elder farm, is hereby incorporated into a separate town by the name of Clinton, — and the said town of Clinton is hereby vested with all the powers, privileges, rights and immunities, and subject to all the duties and requisitions to which other towns are entitled and subjected by the Constitution and Laws of this Commonwealth.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
^' Sec. 4. All the corporate propert}' now owned by the town of Lancaster shall remain the property of said town; and the town Clinton shall pay to the treasurer of the said town of Lancaster the sum of ten thousand dollars by ten equal annual pa}'ments, with semi-annual interest, the first payment to be made one year after the passage of this act, which sum shall fully discharge the town of Clinton of and from all debts and charges now due and owing from said town of
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1892Seal of Clinton, Massachusetts (1892)
1896Wachusett Reservoir, looking south up the valley towa…
1899Wachusett Dam, lower part of main flume, from the sou…
1899Wachusett Dam, rock cut under main flume, from the so…
1899Wachusett Dam, south end of main flume, from the nort…
1899Wachusett Reservoir, main dam site, from the north, C…
1899Wachusett Reservoir, main dam site, from the north, C…
1899Wachusett Reservoir, main dam site, from the northwes…1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Andrew Lei…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Andrew Lei…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Heirs of J…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Heirs of J…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Heirs of J…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Heirs of J…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Julius Hei…
1902Relocation Central Massachusetts Railroad, Julius Hei…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 Clinton’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Grew from 3,113 people in 1850 to 15,428 in 2020, 4 times over.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Clinton’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Clinton’s post office has been open since 1850. Another post office, Clintonville, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1653, according to Wikidata. Clinton’s post office opened in 1846, and the census of 1850 counted 3,113 people here.
Clinton is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #64 of 283 in Massachusetts. 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.
10 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Bigelow Carpet Mill (listed 1978, the first), 3 historic districts, the Downtown Clinton Historic District, the Wachusett Dam Historic District and the Lancaster Mills, with 45 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 77 historic buildings in all.
37% of Clinton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1956.
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 (16), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (10), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
