The Dixfield post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Dixfield Centre (1860), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 403 in 18102020 census: 2,253209 years
How historic is Dixfield?
B
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Dixfield post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Dixfield’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dixfield is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Dixfield’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 Dixfield’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.2 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 Dixfield’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
1894Sheet 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.
Timeline
Dixfield, 1817 to 1926
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Massachusetts General Court granted the township in 1789 to Colonel Jonathan Holman of Sutton, Massachusetts (now Millbury), an American Revolutionary War veteran, together with 25 others. In 1795, the first permanent settlers arrived with their families—John Marble, Gardner Brown, Amos Trask, Levi Newton, David Torrey and John Gould. It was called Holmantown Plantation until part of it was incorporated on June 21, 1803, as Dixfield, the 147th town in Maine (the remainder of the plantation would be incorporated in 1818 as Mexico). Dr. Elijah Dix of Boston, a substantial landowner in the area, promised to donate a library for the town if the citizens changed its name from Holmantown to Dixfield. The citizens complied, after which the town received dusty old boxes of medical books printed in German. Dr. Dix also left his name on Dixmont, where he died while visiting in 1809 and was bu…
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 Dixfield post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Dixfield rank for history?
Dixfield is more historic than 60% 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.
How old are the homes in Dixfield?
23% of Dixfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1969.
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), 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.
1911
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2012
2012
2012
