Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Holden was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Its Register listing is the Holden Town Hall. Below: maps from 1902 on and the census since 1860.
The Holden post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, East Brewer (1829), Wrentham (1829) and Brewer Centre (1847), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Holden is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Holden’s 3.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Holden’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1860 and 1930, then grew 6-fold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Holden’s Wikipedia page.
Holden had its own post office from 1852 to 1901. Three 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Holden yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Holden is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 3,277 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1852. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 3,076 to 3,277 (+7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Holden, cut from the printed page as they were published.
about half-way across the southwest part of the town — connect the highways that traverse its breadth. These are four in number, lying generally not more than a mile apart. One runs from Brewer Village into Holden, with a branch just out of the village running into Orrington. Another strikes from Brewer post-office, with three branches connecting with the wagon bridge over the Penobscot, and points a little above and below it, straight
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Holden is largely upon one of the old settled tracts of the county, but is one of the later municipal formations, having been set off from Brewer and incorporated April 13, 1852. It is distant from Bangor only by the width of Brewer and the Penobscot, or about three miles, and is situated upon the old stage route from Bangor to Ellsworth, Mt. Desert, Cherryfield, and the East of Maine.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Orrington is bounded on the northeast by Brewer and a bit of Holden ; on the southeast by the "gore" of Holden and by Bucksport; on the southwest by Bucksport; and on the west by a narrow breadth of Winterport, Waldo county, beyond the Penobscot; and on the northwest by the same stream, beyond which is the ancient town of Hampden. No one of its borders is a single straight line, although all except that in the river are
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 7
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 6
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 5
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 4
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 3
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 2
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 13
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 12
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 11
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 10
2018The Hart Farm of Holden, Maine image 1
2018Bangor, Maine as seen from Copeland Hill image 3
2018Bangor, Maine as seen from Copeland Hill image 2
2018Bangor, Maine as seen from Copeland Hill image 1
2010Tomb Cemetery
2010Hart's Corner Cemetery
2007Flags At Veteran's MemorialEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Holden. 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 Holden.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Holden itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Holden post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Holden is more historic than 25% 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.
One place: the Holden Town Hall (listed 2014).
4% of Holden’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.3 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (17), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
