Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns · #144 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 111 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1790.
Pepperell dates its founding to 1720 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pepperell is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #144 of 283 in Massachusetts. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Pepperell’s 95.2 sits near the middle of its state (62% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 111 historic buildings outnumber those of 90% 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.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pepperell’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1900 and 1920, then grew 4-fold.
19 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pepperell’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Pepperell.
Pepperell was first settled in 1720 as a part of Groton, and was officially incorporated as its own town in 1775. The founders named it after Sir William Pepperrell, a Massachusetts colonial soldier who led the Siege of Louisbourg during the French and Indian War. The town was noted for its good soil and orchards.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Pepperell, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Doctor Silas Barnard, 1784. The Woburu Public Library has in its possession a marriage certificate, signed by Joseph Heald, town clerk of Pepperell, Massachusetts, of " Doctor Silas Barnard of Pepperell, and Miss Phebe Russell of Cambridge," dated Feb. 25, 1782. There is also extant in the same library a receipted account of his with Deacon Timothy Winn, 1784, for medicines. He was dead
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Worcester and Nashua Railroad, which enters the town from Pepperell, and passes along its western border near the Nashua River, into Nashua, was opened on the 18th of December ; but as it is remote from the centre, and leads to Boston by a circuitous route, it has been of little value to the place. It has no station in the town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
iv. Ruth Farmer, m. at Pepperell 18 Dec. 1788 Jonas Parker, b. at Pepperell 16 July 1766, s. of Edmund and Elizabeth ((Sheple) Green), d. at Pepperell 7 Dec. 1849; d. at Pepperell 5 Feb. 1828. Page 220. Eliza Alice, m. J. B. Hastings.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereHenry Adams Bullard is born here
Born hereJohn Wesley Emerson is born here
In the archiveAtlas of Middlesex County, Massachusetts, by Geo. H. Walker & Co., 1889, from the Digital…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveSeal of2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pepperell. 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 Pepperell.
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 Pepperell’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Pepperell’s post office has been open since 1818.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1720, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Pepperell’s post office opened in 1818, and the first U.S. census counted 1,132 people here in 1790.
Pepperell is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #144 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.
One place: the Pepperell Center Historic District (listed 1994).
15% of Pepperell’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.0 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1981.
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 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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.
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