Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Allan, Harold, Schoolhouse and the Cliffwood Hall. Below: maps from 1955 on and the census since 1850.
The Clifton post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Clifton’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1880 and 1930, then grew 5-fold.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Clifton’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Clifton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Clifton is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 840 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bangor Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1850. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 921 to 840 (-9%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Clifton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
these mountains and lakes, there is still abundant area left for cultivation and other industry; and the beginnings of numerous and prosperous settlement have been well made in Clifton. Most of it, so far, rests along the road which comes from the river road on the Penobscot, at Eddington's Bend, runs through Eddington to Davis Pond, and there makes an angle to the northeastward into Clifton, through which it runs in the same general
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
This tract took the early name of Jarvis's Gore, from an original owner; but, when it came to be incorporated, August 7, 1848, it took the name of Maine, soon subsequently becoming Clifton, as a more musical and appropriate designation. Jarvis's Gore, which must then have included more than the present Clifton, which was not yet settled, had 50 inhabitants in iSio. The population had nearly
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clifton. 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 Clifton.
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 Clifton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Clifton had its own post office from 1850 to 1930.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Clifton post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Two places: the Allan, Harold, Schoolhouse (listed 2008) and the Cliffwood Hall (2008).
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 (2), 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.
2012