Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Hatley was built recently: 0.7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1977.
The Hatley post office opened in 1898, 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 Hatley’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hatley.
When Hatley became a town it was on land owned by the Tubb family and named "Tubb's Crossroads". Several years later a group of Seventh-day Adventists migrated into the area, took control of town government in subsequent elections and renamed it "Hatley" in honor of a minister in the church they left when they moved to the Hatley area.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nobody well known was born in Hatley itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Hatley had its own post office from 1898 to 1903.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Hatley post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 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.
