Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns · #208 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Its Register listing is the 12 Mile road-Kalamazoo River Bridge. Below: maps from 1918 on and the census since 1900.
The Emmett Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Emmett (1846), White's Station (1870) and Wheatfield (1881), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Emmett Township is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #208 of 701 in Michigan. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Emmett Township’s 0.9 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.
Four 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Emmett Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Emmett 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 Emmett Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Emmett Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1846. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 11,770 in 2010, 11,744 in 2020.
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
Built12 Mile road-Kalamazoo River Bridge is builtThe 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.
Between 175 and 297 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Emmett Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Emmett Township post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Emmett Township is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #208 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 12 Mile road-Kalamazoo River Bridge (listed 1999).
11% of Emmett Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.6 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2005