Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns · #59 of 143 in Maine. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 8 buildings between them. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1790.
Standish dates its founding to 1750 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Standish is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #59 of 143 in Maine. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Standish’s 10.3 sits near the middle of its state (43% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% 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.
Standish’s post office has been open since 1797. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Boulter John Cemetery · Doctor James Norton Cemetery · Dows Corner Cemetery · Friendship Cemetery · George Dresser Cemetery · Hamlin Cemetery · Harding Cemetery · Harmon - Waterhouse Cemetery · Jedediah Lumbard Cemetery · Littlefield Cemetery · Lord - Cousins Cemetery · Lowell Cemetery · Maplewood Cemetery · Oak Hill Cemetery · Old Dow's Corner Cemetery · Paine Cemetery · Paine Cemetery · Poor Birch Cemetery · Shaw Cemetery · Wescoat Eliakim Cemetery · White Family Cemetery
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Lost a third of its people between 1850 and 1930, then grew 7-fold.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Standish’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Standish. 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 Standish.
From Wikipedia’s history of Standish.
This was once hunting and fishing territory of the Abenaki tribe, whose main village was at Pequawket (now Fryeburg) up the Pequawket Trail (now Route 113). In 1750, the Massachusetts General Court granted the township to Captain Moses Pearson and Captain Humphrey Hobbs, together with their respective companies, for services during the French and Indian Wars.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereAlbion P. Howe is born here
Born hereSimon M. Hamlin is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveSebago Lake, ME Railroad Station
In the archiveView of
In the archivePierce Memorial Library, Steep Falls, ME
In the archiveSt joseph college hall maine postcard4 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1970s. 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 Standish’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
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.
In 1750, according to Wikidata. Standish’s post office opened in 1797, and the first U.S. census counted 716 people here in 1790.
Standish is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #59 of 143 in Maine. 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.
6 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Daniel Marrett House (listed 1974, the first), 2 historic districts, the Paine Neighborhood Historic District and the Standish Corner Historic District, with 8 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 11 historic buildings in all.
17% of Standish’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 (9), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (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) 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.
c. 1915
1920s
2017
2014
2013