Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns · #123 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 2 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1948 on.
The Cambridge Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Springville (1835) and Cambridge (1840), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cambridge Township is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #123 of 701 in Michigan. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Cambridge Township’s 14.0 sits above most of its state (85% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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 Cambridge Township’s history is told.
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).
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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cambridge Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cambridge Township is a civil township of Lenawee County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 5,722 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1840. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 5,733 in 2010, 5,722 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSt. Joseph's Catholic Church, U. S. 112, Irish Hills District, Michigan (65854)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cambridge 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 Cambridge 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 Cambridge Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Cambridge Township post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cambridge Township is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #123 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.
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Walker Tavern (listed 1971, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Saint Michael and All Angels' Episcopal Church and Cambridge Township Cemetery and the Saint Joseph Church and Shrine, with 2 contributing buildings. 8 historic buildings in all.
13% of Cambridge Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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