Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns · #134 of 143 in Maine. What drives it
Most of Carmel was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1996. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1935 on, and the census since 1820.
Carmel dates its founding to 1811 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1820.
More historic than 41% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Carmel is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns, #134 of 143 in Maine. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Maine towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Maine town has 15.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Carmel’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Carmel’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1870 and 1940, then grew 3-fold.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carmel’s Wikipedia page.
Carmel’s post office has been open since 1818. 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Carmel.
Martin Kinsley of Hampden bought this township in 1795 and began selling lots. The first settlers were Abel Ruggles and the Rev. Paul Ruggles, who named the place to honor the prophet Elijah's experience on Mount Carmel. It was incorporated as a town in 1811.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Carmel, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Carmel is well supplied with school-houses, which generally stand at or near the junction of roads. There is a cemetery at North Carmel, another at Carmel Station, and another toward the southeast corner of the town, on the Newport and Hampden road, running southeasterly through Ruggles Place from Carmel post-office. A number of shingle, saw, cardmg, and other mills are scattered over the town. The Town House is in Carmel village,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Carmel is well supplied with school-houses, which generally stand at or near the junction of roads. There is a cemetery at North Carmel, another at Carmel Station, and another toward the southeast corner of the town, on the Newport and Hampden road, running southeasterly through Ruggles Place from Carmel post-office. A number of shingle, saw, carding, and other mills are scattered over the town. The Town House is in Carmel village,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Through the southern part of the town, running a , little north of east, entering from Bangor two-thirds of a mile above the southeast corner, and passing out into , Carmel nearly two miles north of the opposite corner, runs the track of the Maine Central Railroad. It makes a station for Hermon post-office (the first out of Bangor) one and a half miles southeast of the road junctions at the village, and another three and a half miles west, at
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
one horse in the settlement. This belonged to the pioneer Ruggles, who lived in what at that time was called the Ruggles Settlement, three miles south of the present village of Carmel. When a man asked for this horse to use on the morrow, Mr. Ruggles could not positively promise, but would say: "The first man who comes here to-morrow will get the horse." Mr. Small settled in the western part of Carmel, on the road now-
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereEmory A. Hebard is born here
In the archiveAuto Rest Park, Carmel, Maine, eleven miles west of Bangor (66697)
Born hereMyrna Fahey is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carmel. 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 Carmel.
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 Carmel’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1811, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Carmel’s post office opened in 1818, and the census of 1820 counted 153 people here.
Carmel is more historic than 41% of U.S. towns, #134 of 143 in Maine. 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.
8% of Carmel’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1996.
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), 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 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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