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History · Hillsboro

71% of Hillsboro’s homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1905 on, and the census since 1880.

1on the National Register

71%homes built before 1940

1old photo or paper

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From Hillsboro’s archive · credits on each photo

What stands out about Hillsboro’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Hillsboro’s homes were built before 1938.On the map since 19053 editions of the USGS map, 1905 to 1973. Watch Hillsboro change.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Hillsboro’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Hillsboro’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2 Retake an old viewMain Street (Brick House): stand where they stood+15 Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

The story

How Hillsboro came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Hillsboro.

Read it all →

Hillsboro is the oldest town in Caroline County. Evidence shows that as early as 1694 there was an Anglican chapel-of-ease located on the Eastern bank of the Tuckahoe.

Commercially Hillsboro was the site of a tobacco warehouse, one or more general stores, a shoe factory, and a tavern.

The first newspaper to be published in Caroline County was published in Hillsboro in 1831 by Lucas Brothers.

Hillsboro previously known as Tuckahoe Bridge was named in the honor of Lord Hillsboro of the Calvert Family.

In 1804 there was a fever epidemic in Hillsboro then again in 1816; both occurred in the same house the Seller residence.

Hillsboro was the site of the Tri-County fair and the meeting place of Congressional Conventions.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

On the map

Hillsboro on the map, 1905 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hillsboro. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

1905Denton sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hillsboro.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Hillsboro in 1920

Passages that mention Hillsboro, cut from the printed page as they were published.

appears to have l)een the first rector of St. John's Parish, remained until 1753, Shortly before the Revolution the three settlements at Tuckahoe Bridge (Hillsboro), Choptauk Bridge (Greensboro) and Nino Bridges (Bridgetown) seem to have been quite thriving and apparenth^ contended for the honor an… — **History of Caroline County, Maryland, from its beginning**1920Read the page →
Read the text
appears to have l)een the first rector of St. John's Parish, remained until 1753, Shortly before the Revolution the three settlements at Tuckahoe Bridge (Hillsboro), Choptauk Bridge (Greensboro) and Nino Bridges (Bridgetown) seem to have been quite thriving and apparenth^ contended for the honor and advantage of having the main church and vestry house in which the rector was to live. The Ves-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

nincli rivalry existed between the villages of Hillsboro, Greensboro, and Bridgetown, each of which fought for the honor of having an P]piscopal church erected within its limits. Hillsboro won out, but soon after a chapel was erected at Bridgetown, bricks, shells, mortar, etc., for which were haule… — **History of Caroline County, Maryland, from its beginning**1920Read the page →
Read the text
nincli rivalry existed between the villages of Hillsboro, Greensboro, and Bridgetown, each of which fought for the honor of having an P]piscopal church erected within its limits. Hillsboro won out, but soon after a chapel was erected at Bridgetown, bricks, shells, mortar, etc., for which were hauled from a wharf along the Choptank river.
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.

By decade

Hillsboro, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date

Date?Main Street (Brick House)

Today1 recent

2015St Pauls

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Retake this viewMain Street (Brick House)

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hillsboro’s page.

Retake this view · +15

On the National Register

1 historic place in Hillsboro

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1975

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Gothic Revival1

St. Paul's Episcopal ChurchGothic Revival

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Hillsboro, census by census

Between 128 and 264 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hillsboro’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Hillsboro’s post office has been open since 1800.

Gone or out of use

School Number 1school

1cemetery inside Hillsboro

Saint Pauls Episcopal

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Queen AnneIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Hillsboro’s history

What is on the National Register in Hillsboro?

One place: the St. Paul's Episcopal Church (listed 1975).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →

Start a conversation

Sources

Where this page comes from

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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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