Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Woodville was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Below: maps from 1940 on and the census since 1860.
The Woodville post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, North Woodsville (1857), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Woodville’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1890 and 1960, then grew 4-fold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Woodville’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Woodville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Woodville is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 201 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 248 to 201 (-19%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Woodville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
the Pattagumpas Stream, which empties into the Penobscot just north of Woodville, in Medway, that part of it forming "Tract three." This gives an opportunity for lumbering in that part of Woodville and Township No.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In the sparsely settled upper Penobscot, for election purposes, a quite large territory was embraced in one voting precinct, and as late as 1853 the voters of Winn, Mattawamkeag, Woodville, and Nicatou, (Chester, being incorporated in 1834,) met for election purposes near the end of Mattawamkeag bridge. In 1853 Five Islands Plantation was incorporated, which reduced the number of voters here. Winn was incorporated in 1857,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Ebhors Stream, which, it will be remembered, joins the Madakeunk in Chester about twenty miles before it reaches the Penobscot. This stream has a flow of four miles in Woodville, receiving a small affluent from each side about half a mile northeast of South Woodville postoffice. At the south Plantation line it has another from north of west, and another from the same direction nearly a mile above.
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 SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Woodville. 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 Woodville.
Nobody well known was born in Woodville itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Woodville had its own post office from 1856 to 1909. Another post office, North Woodsville, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Woodville post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From 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.
