Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Packard Proving Grounds Gateway Complex · Photo: Andrew Jameson · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 37% of U.S. towns · #501 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Most of Shelby Township was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1908 on.
More historic than 37% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Shelby Township is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #501 of 701 in Michigan. Its National Register listings hold 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 Shelby Township’s 0.9 sits above most of its state (66% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Shelby Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Disco, 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Shelby 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 Shelby Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Shelby Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 73,804 to 79,408 (+8%).
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 SurveyThe 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 Shelby Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Shelby Township is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #501 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.
Two places: the Clinton-Kalamazoo Canal (listed 1972) and the Packard Proving Grounds Gateway Complex (2007).
1% of Shelby Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (2), 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.
2026
