Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 58 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1860.
The Carrollton post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Carrollton’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1860 and 2010, then more than doubled.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carrollton’s Wikipedia page.
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Carrollton.
The town was developed as the county seat and trading center for rural Carroll County, which was devoted to cotton agriculture and plantations in the antebellum era.
The town was the location of the Carroll County Courthouse Massacre, in 1886.
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.
In the archiveUnveiling of Confederate monument in Carrollton, Mississippi - 1905
Born hereJohn A. Pittman is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carrollton. 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 Carrollton.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1895Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Carrollton’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Carrollton post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the George, James Z., Law Office (listed 1972, the first), 1 historic district, the Carrollton Historic District, with 58 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 61 historic buildings in all.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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