Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #219 of 283 in Massachusetts. What drives it
9 places in town are on the National Register, among them 2 National Historic Landmarks. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1790.
Woburn dates its founding to 1640 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Woburn is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #219 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 Woburn’s 2.1 sits below most of its state (13% of Massachusetts towns have fewer) while its 9 listings outnumber those of 75% 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.
BuiltLoammi Baldwin Mansion is built
Born hereBenjamin Thompson is born here
Built1790 House is built
In the archive1799 stage ConstitutionalTelegraph Boston Nov30
In the archiveView of Woburn, Mass. From Academy Hill
Born hereHerbert L. Clarke is born here
BuiltWoburn Public Library is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereLyle R. Wheeler is born here
Born hereChristopher J. Coyne is born hereWoburn’s post office has been open since 1797. Four 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Woburn’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Woburn.
Woburn was first settled in 1640 near Horn Pond, a primary source of the Mystic River, and was officially incorporated in 1642. At that time the area included present day towns of Woburn, Winchester, Burlington, and parts of Stoneham and Wilmington. In 1730 Wilmington separated from Woburn. In 1799 Burlington separated from Woburn; in 1850 Winchester did so, too.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Woburn, cut from the printed page as they were published.
and east of the village; the "Row" now constituting a part of Washington Street. He himself lived half a mile north of the present village of Winchester ; a locality, until April 30, 1850, included in the town of Woburn. The descendants of these three brothers, bearing the name of Richardsox, long have been and still are more numerous than persons of any other name in Woburn, and among them have been found some of the most useful and valued members of the church and citizens of the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
tinct and separate from Charlestown. A beginning was made in the erection of houses — log-houses, doubtless — during the year 1641. at and near the centre of the new town, which at its incorporation, in September, 1642, received the name of Woburn, from Woburn in Herefordshire, England, where was an ancient abbey, founded in 1145, and where was the palatial residence of* the noble family of Russells, dukes of Bedford, long known as the friends of liberty.*
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He resided at Woburn at the time of his marriage, 1782; was listed as a member of Walker's (Woburn Precinct — Burlington) militia company, 1782, and was taxed, under the name of Headley in Woburn 2d Parish List, 1782. He was in Woburn at Samuel Dean's house with wife Lucy, being then from Lexington, 21 Oct. 1782, and again at same house, and from same town, with wife and two children, Benjamin and Samuel, on 3 Jan. 1786. — Woburn Town Rec. x. 221, 448.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in which a separate precinct did not anticipate a new municipal organization. It would, however, have been no exception to the general rule had its repeated requests to the town of Woburn and to the General Court been listened to and granted. It was an outlying village of its mother-town, as its mother-town had been an outlying village of Charlestown, and the General Court believed that any substantial argu-
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 1790s to the 1850s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Woburn. 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 Woburn.
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 17Sanborn 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 Woburn’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. 2 are National Historic Landmarks, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Grew from 1,727 people in 1790 to 40,876 in 2020, more than tenfold.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Woburn’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1640, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Woburn’s post office opened in 1797, and the first U.S. census counted 1,727 people here in 1790.
Woburn is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #219 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.
9 listings, 2 of them National Historic Landmarks: 8 buildings, among them the Woburn Public Library (a National Historic Landmark since 1987) and the Loammi Baldwin Mansion (listed 1971, the first), and 1 site.
19% of Woburn’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.6 points), against a typical 21% for a Massachusetts town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 (2), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (9), 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.
