Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 20% of U.S. towns · #205 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Buies Creek was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2000. Its Register listing is the James Archibald Campbell House. Below: maps from 1973 on and the census since 2000.
The Buies Creek post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Buey's Creek (1856) and Bowie's Creek (1878), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 20% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Buies Creek is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #205 of 290 in North Carolina. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Buies Creek’s 2.7 sits near the middle of its state (42% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Buies Creek’s history is told.
Buies Creek’s post office has been open since 1899. Two other post offices 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Buies Creek.
The James Archibald Campbell House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
The wooded hamlet of Buies Creek was incorporated by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1914. The town charter was repealed in 1967.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Buies Creek. 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 Buies Creek.
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.
Between 2,215 and 3,253 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Buies Creek’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Buies Creek itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Buies Creek post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Buies Creek is more historic than 20% of U.S. towns, #205 of 290 in North Carolina. 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.
One place: the James Archibald Campbell House (listed 1977).
0.0% of Buies Creek’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.1 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 2000.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
