Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Gallison Memorial Library. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1902 on, and the census since 1800.
The Harrington post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Orrington (1800), West Harrington (1876) and Marshville (1893), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Harrington had its own post office from 1821 to 1845. Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Harrington’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harrington. 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 Harrington.
From Wikipedia’s history of Harrington.
Originally called Plantation Number 5, it was one of six townships east of the Union River granted in 1762 by the Massachusetts General Court to an association of petitioners. First settled about 1765, it had a population of 177 on June 17, 1797, when incorporated as Harrington. In 1848, the eastern part of the town incorporated as the town of Milbridge.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereIrv Ray is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveView of
In the archiveHarrington ME 19242 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Harrington’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Peaked at 1,542 in 1840; 962 people lived here in 2020.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Harrington’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Harrington post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Gallison Memorial Library (listed 2001).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), 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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