Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #181 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 36 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1880.
Clare dates its founding to 1870 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1880.
Clare was named after the county, which was named after County Clare in Ireland.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Clare is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #181 of 701 in Michigan. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls 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 Clare’s 111 sits above most of its state (94% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 37 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Clare’s history is told.
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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1893Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Clare.
Clare was founded with the coming of the Pere Marquette Railroad in 1870. It was named after the county, which was named after County Clare in Ireland. The Clare post office opened on January 20, 1871. It incorporated as a village in 1879 and as a city in 1891.
Cops & Doughnuts is a bakery that opened in 2009 in the former Clare City Bakery that dates back to 1896.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Clare, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Sir H. Sidney, after having brought the landowners of Clare as a body to accept his views regarding a tax on the rents under the new sjrstem, left Galway and returned to Dublin. He resigned office in 1567, and for the time being his arrangement with the landlords of Clare was allowed to drop.t Although Sir Henry returned to Ireland in the following year, his hands were so fiill of other matters that he had no time to follow up his land scheme in Clare ; he ended his third deputyship in the year 1578. Passing over the important period of the Earl of Sussex's rule in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in their churches. Nevertheless, Irish Roman Catholics were neither permitted to enter Parliament nor any of the Government services, nor could they legally purchase land. We obtain an insight into the relative positions of the Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy in Clare at this period, firom a speech delivered at Ennis by L. O'Brien (January 1 764) ; he stated that the country had been divided into seventy-five parishes, but that there were only fourteen Protestant churches in these parishes, so that sixty-two of them were sinecures, and of the fourteen parishes
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.
Born hereRex DeVogt is born here
In the archiveClare-Michigan-McEwan-Street1909-postcard
Born hereWayne Terwilliger is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Clare. 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 Clare.
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 Clare’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 502 and 3,300 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Clare’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Clare’s post office has been open since 1871.
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.
In 1870, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Clare’s post office opened in 1871, and the census of 1880 counted 502 people here.
Clare is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #181 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.
Two places: the Clare Congregational Church (listed 1994) and the Clare Downtown Historic District (2016).
17% of Clare’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 (2), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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