Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns · #41 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 132 buildings between them. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1790.
Sheffield dates its founding to 1725 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sheffield is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #41 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 Sheffield’s 411 sits above most of its state (89% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 137 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sheffield. 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 Sheffield.
Lost half of its people between 1850 and 1920, then more than doubled.
19 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sheffield’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sheffield.
The land was purchased on April 25, 1724, from Chief Konkapot and 20 other Stockbridge Mahican Native Americans. Its price was 460 pounds, 3 barrels of cider and 30 quarts of rum. The lower township of Housatonic (as Outhotonnook would be corrupted) was first settled by Matthew Noble of Westfield, who arrived in 1725.
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.
BuiltGeneral John and Mary Fellows Farmstead is built
In the archiveSheffield Declaration in Massachusetts Spy
Born hereChester Dewey is born here
Born hereFrederick Augustus Porter Barnard is born here
Born hereJohn G. Barnard is born here
Born hereGeorge Frederick Root is born here
In the archive1839 Print of
In the archiveMain street, Sheffield, from the south.Alternate Title: Housatonic Valley, illustrated
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveKonkapot River (Massachusetts) map
In the archiveSheffield station and dome postcard
In the archiveElm Court6 decades in the archive, from the 1770s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
1887Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn 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 Sheffield’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Sheffield’s post office has been open since 1795. Another post office, East Sheffield, 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 1725, according to Wikidata. Sheffield’s post office opened in 1795, and the first U.S. census counted 1,899 people here in 1790.
Sheffield is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #41 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.
5 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Col. John Ashley House (listed 1975, the first), 2 historic districts, the Sheffield Plain Historic District and the Sheffield Center Historic District, with 132 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 137 historic buildings in all.
26% of Sheffield’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 1975.
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 (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
c. 1865
c. 1865
1907–1915
1909
c. 1920