Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns · #243 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Ann's Diner. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1898 on, and the census since 1790.
Salisbury dates its founding to 1638 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Salisbury is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #243 of 283 in Massachusetts. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Salisbury’s 1.1 sits below most of its state (9% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
Born hereHannah Webster Foster is born here
In the archiveA perspective view of the salt works in Salisbury, New England
Born hereCaleb Cushing is born here
Born hereJames Pike is born here
In the archiveStreetcar in Salisbury Square - postcard
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltAnn's Diner is builtThe first neighbors to add old photos shape how Salisbury’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1890, then grew 7-fold.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Salisbury’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Salisbury.
The area currently known as Salisbury was inhabited for tens of thousands of years prior to European colonization. At the Morrill Point burial mound site on the north shore of the Merrimack River, there are human remains dating to 7,000 years ago with some dating suggesting settlement there as early as 8,500 years ago.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1770s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Salisbury. 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 Salisbury.
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.
1898Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Salisbury’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Three other post offices 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1638, according to Wikidata. Salisbury’s post office opened in 1827, and the first U.S. census counted 1,780 people here in 1790.
Salisbury is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #243 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 Ann's Diner (listed 2003).
18% of Salisbury’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.3 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (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), 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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