Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns · #118 of 143 in Maine. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1790.
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Durham is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #118 of 143 in Maine. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Durham’s 11.7 sits near the middle of its state (46% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 5 listings outnumber those of 70% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 Durham’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1850 and 1940, then grew 5-fold.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Durham’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Durham. 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 Durham.
From Wikipedia’s history of Durham.
Durham was named after County Durham, England, the ancestral home of the town's first settler. It was previously known as Royallsborough, named after Isaac Royall Jr.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Durham, cut from the printed page as they were published.
population in 1790, and 722 in 1800). The settlement in Greene, begun before the Revolution, numbered nearly five hundred people at its incorporation in 1788, and in 1796 a post-office was established. Royalsborough had been settled rapidly from 1760, and when incorporated as Durham in 1789 was a prosperous community. Poland had 1,400 inhabitants at its incorporation in 1794. Lewiston in 1790 had 532 residents, while at the settlement of Port Royal, later Livermore, about 400 people were living (increased to 863 in 1800). Thompsonborough (Lisbon) became a town in 1799. Littleborough
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Elder Benjamin Randall held meetings in Lisbon in 1780, in which some from Durham were converted, and a church was gathered, made up of inhabitants from both sides of the river. In 1790 a Free Baptist church was organized on the Durham side by Elders E. Stinchfield and Christopher Tracy. A record of baptisms kept by Elder Stinchfield contains the following names
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid that Samuel Merrill Esq. be and he is impowered and required to issue his Warrant to some principal inhabitant of Said town of Durham directing him to warn the Inhabitants thereof to assemble at some convenient time and place in said town, to choose all such officers as by law are to be chosen annually in the months of March or April.
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 hereNelson Dingley is born here
Born hereHosea M. Knowlton is born here
Born hereJohn A. Randall is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2019DurhamME NathanielOsgoodHouse
2018ME Route 136 northbound
2018Historical marker
2018Gazebo
2018Durham Congregational Church
2016Three Chickadees
2015Scarlet Tanager in
2015Scarlet Tanager
2014Union Church, also used as town hall
2014DurhamME WestDurhamMethodistChurch
2014DurhamME RoyalsboroughInn
2012Lisbon Falls, Maine
2012Lisbon Falls, Maine - panoramio (1)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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Another post office, Shiloh, opened and closed inside today’s town.
Bradbury Cemetery · Cedar Grove Cemetery · Fairfield Cemetery · Friends Cemetery · Gerrish Cemetery · Gerrish Family Cemetery · Harmony Grove Cemetery · Highland Cemetery · Hilltop Cemetery · Knight - Snow Cemetery · Littlefield Cemetery · Old North Meeting House Cemetery · Parker - Merrill Cemetery · Parker Cemetery · Pleasant View Cemetery · Roberts Cemetery · Sawyer Cemetery · Shiloh Cemetery · Strout Cemetery · Sylvester Cemetery · Vining Cemetery · Waterhouse Cemetery
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.
Durham is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #118 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.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Shiloh Temple (listed 1975, the first).
12% of Durham’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (16), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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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