Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns · #202 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Its Register listing is the William S. Delano House. Its Register listing is the William S. Delano House. Below: 1 old photo or paper and maps from 1916 on.
The Cooper Township post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cooper (1837), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cooper Township is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #202 of 701 in Michigan. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age 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 Cooper Township’s 1.0 sits above most of its state (66% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Cooper Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Cooper, 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cooper 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 Cooper Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cooper Township.
The township is named after Sarah Sabina Cooper, the wife of Horace H. Comstock, an early pioneer of the area and founder of nearby Comstock. She was the niece of the author James Fenimore Cooper.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Cooper Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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 Cooper Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Cooper Township post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cooper Township is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #202 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.
One place: the William S. Delano House (listed 1979).
11% of Cooper Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
2023
