Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns · #102 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Wolcott Mill. Below: maps from 1914 on.
The Ray Township post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Ray (1827), Ray Centre (1846) and Davis (1876), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ray Township is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #102 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 Ray Township’s 10.6 sits above most of its state (83% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 Ray Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ray 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 Ray Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Ray Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Ray Township is a civil township of Macomb County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 3,780.
Its first post office opened in 1827. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 3,739 in 2010, 3,780 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
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 SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs 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 Ray Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Ray Township post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Ray Township is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #102 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 Wolcott Mill (listed 2009).
19% of Ray Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.9 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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
