Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Liberty was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1961 on, and the census since 1900.
Liberty dates its founding to 1809 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1900.
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 Liberty’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltLiberty Presbyterian Church is built
In the archiveBottomland hardwood forest amite river
Born hereE.H. Hurst is born here
Born hereJerry Clower is born here
In the archiveSlave gallery in Liberty Presbyterian church Amite County Mississippi
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereGabe Jackson is born hereThe 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 Liberty.
Liberty was incorporated on February 24, 1809. The Amite County Courthouse in Liberty is the oldest in Mississippi. Erected in 1839, the courthouse was enlarged and modernized in 1936. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Liberty. 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 Liberty.
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 Liberty’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 392 and 728 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Liberty’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Liberty’s post office has been open since 1812.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
In 1809, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Liberty’s post office opened in 1812, and the census of 1900 counted 392 people here.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Amite County Courthouse (listed 1974, the first).
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 (7), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (4), 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) 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.
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