Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Reed School. Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1840.
Amity dates its founding to 1826 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1840.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Amity’s history is told.
Amity had its own post office from 1837 to 1909. Two 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).
Peaked at 432 in 1880; 253 people lived here in 2020.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Amity’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Amity.
Amity was first settled in 1826, and incorporated as a town on March 19, 1836, from township T10 R1 WELS. According to some, the town was named for the 1794 Treaty of “Amity, Commerce, and Navigation between England and the United States,” which aimed to end the boundary dispute between Maine and New Brunswick.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Amity. 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 Amity.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Amity itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1826, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Amity’s post office opened in 1837, and the census of 1840 counted 169 people here.
One place: the Reed School (listed 2001).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (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) 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.
2017
