Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 3 buildings. Below: maps from 1981 on and the census since 1810.
The Surry post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, South Surry (1836), East Surry (1872) and South Surry (1874), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Surry is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age 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 Surry’s 32.7 sits above most of its state (68% of Maine towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Surry’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1860 and 1950, then grew 3-fold.
22 censuses, 1810–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Surry’s Wikipedia page.
Surry’s post office has been open since 1812. Three 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 Surry.
The following information derives from George J. Varney's A Gazetteer of the State of Maine, published in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1886:
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Surry.
1981Blue Hill sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Surry.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Surry itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Surry post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Surry is more historic than 81% 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.
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Rural Hall (listed 2004, the first), and 1 historic district, the Moonspring Hermitage, with 3 contributing buildings. 6 historic buildings in all.
16% of Surry’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.2 points), against a typical 19% for a Maine town; the median home was built in 1987.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
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