Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Pittsboro was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1870.
The Pittsboro post office opened in 1853, 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 Pittsboro’s history is told.
Peaked at 277 in 1990; 157 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pittsboro’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Pittsboro yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Pittsboro is a village in and the county seat of Calhoun County, Mississippi, United States. As of the 2020 census, Pittsboro had a population of 157.
Its first post office opened in 1853. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 202 to 157 (-22%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereDennis Murphree is born here
Born hereJack Knight is born here
In the archivePSM V83 D473 Petrified log from
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pittsboro. 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 Pittsboro.
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 Pittsboro’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Pittsboro post office opened in 1853, 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 Wikimedia Commons (2), 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.
2016
