Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 58% of U.S. towns · #112 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Burlington was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. 28 places in town are on the National Register, among them seven historic districts with 543 buildings between them. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1880.
Burlington dates its founding to 1886 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 58% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Burlington is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #112 of 290 in North Carolina. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age 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 Burlington’s 97.5 sits above most of its state (75% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 581 historic buildings outnumber those of 98% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Burlington’s post office has been open since 1887. Another post office, Company's Shops, 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 Burlington.
Alamance County was created when Orange County was partitioned in 1849. Early settlers included several groups of Quakers, many of which remain active in the Snow Camp area, German farmers, and Scots-Irish immigrants.
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.
BuiltAllen House is built
In the archiveCompany Shops Rail Locomotive
In the archiveHoltHawRiverMill
In the archiveDavis Street Riders [1908]BuiltEfird Building is builtBuiltAlamance Hotel is builtBuiltAtlantic Bank and Trust Company Building is built
Born hereHarold Covington is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereAndrew Everett is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Burlington. 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 Burlington.
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.
1893Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Burlington’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 817 people in 1880 to 57,303 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Burlington’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1886, according to Wikidata. Burlington’s post office opened in 1858, and the census of 1880 counted 817 people here.
Burlington is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #112 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.
28 listings: 20 buildings, among them the Allen House (listed 1970, the first), 7 historic districts with 543 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 581 historic buildings in all.
8% of Burlington’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.7 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (5), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (28), 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.
![Main Street Burlington, "Bigger Better Burlington," [1908]](https://images.townratings.com/story/12433/240d1653d1cf763bace5-s.jpg)
1908
1908
