Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns · #519 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1906 on, and the census since 1850.
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ash Township is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #519 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
Few Michigan towns list much on the Register (a typical Michigan town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ash Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (32% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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 Ash Township’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1860 and 1870, then grew 5-fold.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ash Township’s Wikipedia page.
Two 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 Ash Township.
Ash Township was organized in 1837 from a northern portion of Frenchtown Township. The township was named after local resident Arba Ash, who proposed the name during an early township meeting.
Potter Cemetery is a historic cemetery located in eastern Ash Township.
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 Survey
2022Public Act 525 of 2012 (Michigan) historic marker
2022Potter Cemetery (Ash Township, Michigan)
2022Buzzwick Airport (Michigan)
2021Flat Rock Speedway, Ash Township, Michigan
2020I-275 Carleton Rest Area, Ash Township, Monroe County…
2011Ash Township Office and Fire Station Michigan
2010CarletonMichiganEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ash Township. 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 Ash Township.
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 Ash Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Ash Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Ash Township is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #519 of 701 in Michigan. 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.
13% of Ash Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 (8), 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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