Founding year: the first Easton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Easton’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Easton is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Easton’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 Easton’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 D to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 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 Easton’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.
1895Sheet 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 1851, the first known residence in the Easton wilderness was built by Henry Wilson, who had taught school in Presque Isle. When Solomon Bolster arrived in 1854, he joined Henry Wilson and Augustus Rackliffe, its sole residents. In 1855–1856, Noah Barker partitioned the township into 142 lots of 160 acres in size, thereby determining its layout. The state opened it for settlement and, on July 26, 1856, it was organized as the Fremont Plantation. A schoolhouse was built in 1858 and the first of several lumber mills was constructed in another year. By 1860, the population was 320. Growth of the population slowed during the Civil War, and the town of Easton was incorporated 1865. Economic growth was slow, evidenced by an 1862 record that taxes should be paid in grain or shingles. The first store was opened in 1863. A starch factory was built in 1877, and a steam shingle mill in 1879. Eas…
The Easton post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Easton rank for history?
Easton is more historic than 38% 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 Easton?
22% of Easton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 (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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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