Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 21% of U.S. towns · #202 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Carolina Beach was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Its Register listing is the Joy Lee Apartment Building and Annex. Below: 14 old photos and papers, maps from 1942 on, and the census since 1930.
The Carolina Beach post office opened in 1917, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 21% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Carolina Beach is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #202 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 Carolina Beach’s 3.0 sits near the middle of its state (43% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1940s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1998FEMA - 790 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on 0…
1999FEMA - 103 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 09-18…
1999FEMA - 104 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 09-18…
1999FEMA - 105 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 09-18…
1999FEMA - 106 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 09-18…
1999FEMA - 22 - Photograph by Dave Saville taken on 10-12…
1999FEMA - 415 - Photograph by Dave Gatley taken on 09-17…
1999FEMA - 442 - Photograph by Dave Saville taken on 10-1…From Wikipedia’s history of Carolina Beach.
The town was "wiped off the map" by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Reportedly, 362 buildings were destroyed in the town.
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 Survey
In the archiveCB-15, Bus Station, Carolina Beach, The South's Miracle Beach (NBY 7228)
In the archiveIntracoastal waterway near Wilmington, North CarolinaIn the archiveFEMA - 790 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on 09-22-1998 in North CarolinaEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carolina Beach. 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 Carolina Beach.
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 Carolina Beach’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Grew from 95 people in 1930 to 6,564 in 2020, more than tenfold.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carolina Beach’s Wikipedia page.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Carolina Beach post office opened in 1917, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Carolina Beach is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #202 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 Joy Lee Apartment Building and Annex (listed 1997).
5% of Carolina Beach’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1988.
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 (18), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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