Most of Frankfort was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the Frankfort Dam. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1790.
Founding year: the first Frankfort post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Frankfort’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Frankfort is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Frankfort’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 Frankfort’s 9.1 sits near the middle of its state (39% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.2 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 Frankfort’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Frankfort is the oldest town on the Penobscot River, first settled in the 1760s by Massachusetts soldiers from nearby Fort Pownall. With the end of the French and Indian War, the Penobscot Valley became part of New England, and more specifically Massachusetts, leading to the first cautious encroachments by English-speaking settlers on the lands of the Penobscot Indians. This process, which would begin in Frankfort, would end with the founding of Bangor, Brewer, Orono, Old Town and other inland settlements, and the eventual restriction of the Penobscot people to their major village at "Indian Old Town", or the present Penobscot Indian Reservation.
The Frankfort post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Frankfort rank for history?
Frankfort is more historic than 33% 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 Frankfort?
One place: the Frankfort Dam (listed 2003).
How old are the homes in Frankfort?
7% of Frankfort’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1991.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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