Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Morrill

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
CHistory
History · Morrill

Morrill’s post office opened in 1855, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 27% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: maps from 1915 on and the census since 1860.

1855first post office
0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
Photo: Nyttend · Public domain
Quick answers

How Morrill began

When was Morrill founded?

1855

The Morrill post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 629 in 18602020 census: 971171 years

How historic is Morrill?

C

More historic than 27% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Morrill post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Morrill’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Morrill is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Morrill’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 27%
NewerOlder

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 Morrill’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.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.8 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 Morrill’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Morrill’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Morrill’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
People over time

Morrill, census by census

02004006008001,000190019502000629 in 1860Low: 288

Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.

17 censuses, 1860–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Morrill’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Morrill on the map, 1915 to 1973

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Morrill. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Morrill on the 1915 USGS mapMorrill on the 1941 USGS mapMorrill on the 1960 USGS mapMorrill on the 1973 USGS map1915Belfast sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Morrill.

The story

How Morrill came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Morrill.

Read it all →

Morrill is situated in the central part of Waldo County, 6½ miles west of Belfast. The surface of the town is uneven, but with very little waste land. Morey and Rowe hills are probably the highest elevations, though these have no great altitude. The soil is sandy in parts, and in others clay loam. Hay and potatoes are the chief crops. The usual forest trees of the region thrive here. Cross Pond, in this town, contains about 100 acres (40 ha), and another—Dolliff—about 50 acres (200,000 m2). The chief water-power is at the village on the east on the Passagassawakeag Stream. There are here shingle and stave mills, and a horse-rake factory. Morrill is on the Belfast and Kendall’s Mills stage-line. The nearest railroad station is at Belfast.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Morrill, 1855 to 2020

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1855Post officeThe Morrill post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1915On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 21st century
  6. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 971
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
Famous people

Famous people close to Morrill

Nobody well known was born in Morrill itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about Morrill’s history

What year was Morrill founded?

The Morrill post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Morrill rank for history?

Morrill is more historic than 27% 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.

How old are the homes in Morrill?

12% of Morrill’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.8 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1992.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Wikipedia, 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.