Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns. What drives it
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 3 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1906 on, and the census since 1970.
The Ogunquit post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1980.
More historic than 87% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ogunquit is more historic than 87% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Ogunquit’s 72.5 sits above most of its state (81% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% 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 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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltOgunquit Memorial Library is built
In the archiveSanborn Fire Insurance Map from Ogunquit, York County, Maine, 1906, Plate 0001
In the archiveBathing SceneBuiltOgunquit Playhouse is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Ogunquit.
Ogunquit was first a village within Wells, which was settled by colonists in 1641. The first sawmill was established in 1686, and shipbuilding developed along the tidal Ogunquit River. Local shipwrights built schooners, brigs and dories.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ogunquit.
1985Kittery sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Ogunquit.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1906Sheet 1 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Ogunquit’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 892 and 1,577 people in every census since 1970.
6 censuses, 1970–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ogunquit’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Ogunquit itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Ogunquit’s post office has been open since 1826.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Ogunquit post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1980.
Ogunquit is more historic than 87% 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.
8 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Goodale-Bourne Farm (listed 1979, the first), 1 historic district, the Colonial Inn, with 3 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 10 historic buildings in all.
20% of Ogunquit’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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