Founding year: the first Seat Pleasant post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1931.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Seat Pleasant’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Seat Pleasant is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #151 of 261 in Maryland. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Seat Pleasant’s overall grade.
Few Maryland towns list much on the Register (a typical Maryland town has 0.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Seat Pleasant’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (20% of Maryland towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1931.
Founding year: the first post office (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 →
What stands out about Seat Pleasant’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Seat Pleasant. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1900Washington 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 Seat Pleasant.
People over time
Seat Pleasant, census by census
Peaked at 7,217 in 1970; 4,522 people lived here in 2020.
9 censuses, 1940–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Seat Pleasant’s Wikipedia page.
Seat Pleasant is located on part of what had been the Williams-Berry estate. In 1850, the descendants of General Otho Holland Williams, a Revolutionary War hero, and James Berry, a mid-17th-century Puritan leader, sold it to Joseph Gregory. Seat Pleasant was developed on the dairy farm of Joseph Gregory, the farm of the Hill family, and the land of building contractor Francis Carmody, among others. In 1873, some of the land along Addison Road was subdivided into small farms and rural home sites known as Jackson's Subdivision.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Seat Pleasant post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1931.
How does Seat Pleasant rank for history?
Seat Pleasant is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #151 of 261 in Maryland. 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.
How old are the homes in Seat Pleasant?
10% of Seat Pleasant’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 3.3% for a Maryland town; the median home was built in 1962.
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), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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