Founding year: the first Sodus Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sodus Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sodus Township is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sodus Township’s overall grade.
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 Sodus Township’s 62.8 sits above most of its state (92% of Michigan towns have fewer) while its 14 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Sodus Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Probably the first entrepreneur in Sodus Township was James LaRue, a New Jersey native, who purchased riverfront land for the construction of a sawmill in 1835. The first permanent settler, however, was David S. Rector who, in 1837, took possession of 40 acres of land.
The name of the township came from Rector. He and his brother, William H., came to the area by way of keel boat from Sodus, New York, so the township was named such in 1859 after the town from which they departed.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sodus Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1927Benton Harbor sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Sodus Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewChurch near Sodus, Michigan, 1940
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Sodus Township’s page.
The Sodus Township post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Sodus Township rank for history?
Sodus Township is more historic than 68% 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.
What is on the National Register in Sodus Township?
One place: the Rock S. Edwards Farmstead (listed 1995).
How old are the homes in Sodus Township?
15% of Sodus Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 12% for a Michigan town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 Library of Congress (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1940
1940
1940
