The Cornish post office opened in 1811, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cornishville (1829), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 409 in 17902020 census: 1,508215 years
How historic is Cornish?
A−
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Cornish post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cornish’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cornish is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cornish’s overall grade.
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 Cornish’s 22.2 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 Cornish’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1840 and 1930, then more than doubled.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cornish’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Cornish, building by building, 1886–1911
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1886Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
In 1665, a trading post was established by Francis Small in the vicinity of Cornish village, not far from the confluence of the Ossipee River with the Saco River. Here converged three major Abenaki paths—the Sokokis Trail (Route 5), the Ossipee Trail (Route 25) and the Pequawket Trail (Route 113), making it a central location for conducting with Native Americans the lucrative fur trade. In 1668, Small purchased from Newichawannock Chief Captain Sunday (or Wesumbe) the Ossipee Tract, encompassing the present-day towns of Cornish, Parsonsfield, Newfield, Limerick, Limington and Shapleigh (which then included Acton). The price was two large Indian blankets, two gallons of rum, two pounds of gunpowder, four tons of musket balls and twenty strings of Indian beads. Small then sold a half interest in the tract to Major Nicholas Shapleigh of Eliot.
Passages that mention Cornish, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of York County, Maine. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers1880 · page 343Read the page →
Read the text
The first settlement in the village of Cornish was made by Joseph M. Thompson, who erected a log house about the year 1782, on the south side of the main street, near the park, where now stands the law-office of Hon. Caleb R. Ayer.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of York County, Maine. With illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers1880 · page 344Read the page →
Read the text
Just across the Little River Bridge, to the west, almost in the centre of the beautiful village of Cornish, a single lot on JIain Street, containing about a quarter of an acre, has been fenced and left to the occupancy of the most honored dead. On one side is a fine school-house ; on the other, a neat hotel. Running parallel with the street a grove of pines shuts out the view of the river ; within this inelosure a few shrubs are scattered among the marble
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.
Timeline
Cornish, 1808 to 2020
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Cornish post office opened in 1811, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cornish rank for history?
Cornish is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Cornish?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Odd Fellows-Rebekah Hall (listed 1983, the first).
How old are the homes in Cornish?
18% of Cornish’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.1 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (12), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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