Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Lipsett Hardware Building.
The Pickford Township post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Stirlingville (1888), Kelden (1896) and Tone (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pickford Township is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns. 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 Pickford Township’s 6.0 sits above most of its state (77% 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 Pickford Township’s history is told.
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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Pickford Township.
Pickford was established in 1877 when Charles W. Pickford from Ontario first settled here along the Munuscong River. A post office was established in February 1880.
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.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Pickford Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Pickford Township post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Pickford Township is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns. 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 Lipsett Hardware Building (listed 2013).
14% of Pickford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.2 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1979.
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, 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.
2026
2021