On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orion Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #182 of 701 in Michigan. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Orion Township’s overall grade.
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 Orion Township’s 58.1 sits above most of its state (91% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 224 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 points) is firm at this size.
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 →
What stands out about Orion Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Cole Post Officepost officeCole StationlocaleEames Post Officepost officeEames StationlocaleJersey Post Officepost officeLake Orion StationlocaleMahopac Post Officepost office
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Orion Township
BerridgeEast LawnEvergreenPerrySquare Lake
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Orion Township’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Orion Township’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Orion Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Orion Charter Township ( ORR-ee-ən) is a charter township of Oakland County, Michigan, United States. The population was 38,206 as of the 2020 census. The official motto of the township and village is "Where living is a vacation." "Lake Orion" is often used to describe both the village and the township. The township hosts General Motors' Orion Assembly plant which produces small cars and EV pickup trucks.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 35,394 to 38,206 (+8%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Orion Township, 1839 to 1943
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orion Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1943Oxford sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Orion Township.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Orion Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #182 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.
What is on the National Register in Orion Township?
Three places: the Lake Orion Historic District (listed 2006), the William Edmund and Nina A. Downey Scripps Estate (2007) and the Lower Trout Lake Bathhouse Complex and Contact Station (2013).
How old are the homes in Orion Township?
6% of Orion Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (5), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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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