Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1910 on, and the census since 1800.
Leeds dates its founding to 1801 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Leeds is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Leeds’ 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.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Leeds’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1840 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Leeds’ Wikipedia page.
Leeds’s post office has been open since 1980. Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Leeds.
Leeds was named after Leeds, England, the ancestral home of the town's first settlers, Thomas and Rogers Stinchfield. Their father, John, came from Leeds, England and was among the first settlers of New Gloucester, Maine.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Leeds, cut from the printed page as they were published.
quarrels of theirs, and his decisions were invariably received as the highest order of unwritten law. Exceptions were never taken nor appeals made, but silent submission as of right. To this friendship is the town of Leeds indebted for its first settlers. Easterly from the railroad crossing, near where the railroad bridge spans Dead River, distant about twenty-five rods, formerly the wigwams of Pocasset and his clan were spread. To this clearing were they moved from the north-easterly shore of Pocasset
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Children : Ada A., b. in Leeds May 23. 1855 ; d. in Leeds Nov. 8, 1873. Fremont, b. in Leeds Jan. 21, 1857; d. in Leeds Jime 30, 1863. Willie E., b. in Leeds Aug. it. i860; d. in Brewer May 29, 1899.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Thus, in 1872, the Maine Central Company had long leases of the Portland and Kennebec Railroad, the Somerset and Kennebec Railroad, the Androscoggin Railroad, and the Leeds and Farmington Railroad. By an act of February 7, 1872, these corporations were authorized to unite with the Maine Central in a mortgage to secure bonds issued by that company. The Maine Central now operates and controls in Maine, besides the above, the Newport and Dexter Railroad, the Belfast and Moosehead Lake Railroad, the Eastern Maine, the European and North American, the Portland and Ogdensburg,
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 hereOliver Otis Howard is born here
Born hereCharles Henry Howard is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereKenneth M. Curtis is born here
In the archiveCharlie's Diner sign, Route 11One decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Leeds. 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 Leeds.
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 Leeds’ page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1801, according to Wikidata. Leeds’ post office opened in 1853, and the census of 1800 counted 607 people here.
Leeds is more historic than 47% 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.
12% of Leeds’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (6), 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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