Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1899 on, and the census since 1870.
The Pentwater post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 1,510 in 1890; 890 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pentwater’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Pentwater yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 857 to 890 (+4%).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2025Post office and town hall
2025Pentwater Township, Michigan
2025Pentwater Lake panorama
2025Pentwater Lake and canal
2025Downtown
2020St. Vincent Chapel-Pentwater
2018Pentwater d'inverno
2013Pentwater, MI 49449, USA
2013Pentwater, MI 49449, USA - panoramio (3)
2013Pentwater, MI 49449, USA - panoramio (2)
2013Pentwater, MI 49449, USA - panoramio (1)
2009Pentwater channel
2004Michigan - Flickr - eliduke (1)Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pentwater. 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 Pentwater.
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.
1899Sheet 1 of 5Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Pentwater’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Pentwater post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (18), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1911
1973
1973
