Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns · #278 of 701 in Michigan. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Boys' Club Building. Below: maps from 1985 on and the census since 1860.
The Sidney Township post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Colby (1879), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sidney Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #278 of 701 in Michigan. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 Sidney Township’s 3.8 sits above most of its state (74% 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 Sidney Township’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1880 and 1940, then more than doubled.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sidney Township’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Sidney Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Sidney Township is a civil township of Montcalm County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 2,538 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1862. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,574 in 2010, 2,538 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.
BuiltBoys' Club Building is built
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 U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sidney Township.
1985Cedar Springs sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sidney Township.
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 Sidney Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Another post office, Colby, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Sidney Township post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sidney Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #278 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 Boys' Club Building (listed 2004).
19% of Sidney Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1976.
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, U.S. Census counts (via 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.
