Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns · #34 of 100 in Mississippi. What drives it
Most of Ellisville was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Its Register listings are the Amos Deason House, the Bynum-Anderson House and the Jones County Courthouse and Confederate Monument at Ellisville. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1880.
The Ellisville post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Ellisville Depot (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 64% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ellisville is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #34 of 100 in Mississippi. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Mississippi towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Mississippi town has 71.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Ellisville’s 6.6 sits near the middle of its state (52% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% 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 Ellisville’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1920, then more than doubled.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ellisville’s Wikipedia page.
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.
1890Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ellisville.
The town is named for Powhatan Ellis, a former U.S. senator for Mississippi who identified as a descendant of Pocahontas and her father, Chief Powhatan in Virginia. Ellisville was designated as the county seat, and it became the major commercial and population center of Jones County through the early decades of development in the nineteenth century.
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.
BuiltAmos Deason House is built
Born hereBuddy Myer is born here
Born hereHarry Craft is born here
In the archiveUnited States post office. Ellisville, Mississippi
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereJason Simpson is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ellisville. 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 Ellisville.
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 Ellisville’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Ellisville had its own post office from 1827 to 1884. Another post office, Ellisville Depot, 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 Ellisville post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Ellisville is more historic than 64% of U.S. towns, #34 of 100 in Mississippi. 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.
Three places: the Amos Deason House (listed 1984), the Bynum-Anderson House (2022) and the Jones County Courthouse and Confederate Monument at Ellisville (1994).
8% of Ellisville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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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