Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1860.
Manchester dates its founding to 1775 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Manchester is more historic than 64% 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 Manchester’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.
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 Manchester’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1860 and 1920, then grew 5-fold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Manchester’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Manchester. 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 Manchester.
From Wikipedia’s history of Manchester.
In the early 19th century, the town was known as "The Forks". The town was named Manchester after Manchester, Massachusetts.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Manchester, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The territory of the Hallowell Granite Works was originally incorporated in the town of Manchester, but a few years ago the granite company sought to have it annexed to Hallowell, in order that the roads might be kept to please the company. This was a measure that the people of Manchester strenuously opposed; but the interests of Hallowell prevailed, and the large quarry of the Hallowell Granite Works was added to the city. In 1852 the sum of $450 was raised and used in making a town hall over the school house then being built.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The lines of these parishes are substantially intact to-day. The South .parish was the territory of modern Hallowell, before it was deprived of Chelsea and parts of Manchester and Farmingdale. When ancient (Hallowell was divided, the two other parishes remained intact, but from a geographical necessity the name of the original Middle parish was changed to South — the present South parish of Augusta. The term " ^'/a' South parish " properly applies to Hallowell and not to the newer one of Augusta.* A meeting house that is still standing was
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
In the archivePeterson's Ice CreamOne decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. 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 Manchester’s page.
Retake this view · +15Manchester’s post office has been open since 1856.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1775, according to Wikidata. Manchester’s post office opened in 1856, and the census of 1860 counted 813 people here.
Manchester is more historic than 64% 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.
16% of Manchester’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1977.
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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