Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 86% of U.S. towns. What drives it
17 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 4 buildings. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1890.
The Port Gibson post office opened in 1803, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 86% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Port Gibson is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold 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 Port Gibson’s 1,705 sits above most of its state (100% of Mississippi towns have fewer) while its 215 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% 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 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.
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.
1889Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Peaked at 2,920 in 1950; 1,269 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Port Gibson’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Port Gibson.
Port Gibson is the third-oldest European-American settlement in Mississippi. Its development began in 1729 by French colonists and was then within French-claimed territory known as La Louisiane. The British acquired this area after the French ceded their colonies east of the Mississippi River in 1763, following their defeat in the Seven Years' War.
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.
BuiltWintergreen Cemetery is builtBuiltIdlewild is built
Born hereGeorge William Butler is born here
In the archiveMap of Mississippi River from Grand Gulf, Mississippi to Natchez, Mississippi (1866)BuiltJewish Cemetery is builtBuiltChamberlain-Hunt Academy Historic District is built
In the archivePort Gibson, Mississippi, August 1940
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port Gibson. 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 Port Gibson.
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 Port Gibson’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Port Gibson’s post office has been open since 1803.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Port Gibson post office opened in 1803, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Port Gibson is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns. 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.
17 listings: 11 buildings, 1 historic district, the Drake Hill Historic District, with 4 contributing buildings, and 5 sites. 215 historic buildings in all.
11% of Port Gibson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1969.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (8), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (17), 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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