Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns · #161 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Carrboro was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 37 buildings between them. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1946 on, and the census since 1920.
Carrboro dates its founding to 1882 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1920.
Carrboro was named for Julian S. Carr, a UNC alumnus, trustee, honorary degree recipient, industrialist, and philanthropist whose company brought electric power to the town.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Carrboro is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #161 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 Carrboro’s 19.8 sits near the middle of its state (60% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 42 historic buildings outnumber those of 84% 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.
Carrboro’s post office has been open since 1914. Another post office, Venable, 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).
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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Carrboro.
Before European settlement, the Occaneechi Indians lived in the area of what is now Hillsborough, north of Carrboro. As part of North Carolina's piedmont region, European settlement in the area likely did not begin until at least the 1730s.
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.
BuiltThomas and Mary Hogan House is built
In the archiveMrs. Lloyd, ninety-one year-old victim of pellagra, 8a40805
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltAlberta Mill Complex is builtOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Carrboro. 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 Carrboro.
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 Carrboro’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,129 people in 1920 to 21,295 in 2020, more than tenfold.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carrboro’s Wikipedia page.
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 1882, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Carrboro’s post office opened in 1910, and the census of 1920 counted 1,129 people here.
Carrboro is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #161 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.
5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Alberta Mill Complex (listed 1976, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Carrboro Commercial Historic District and the Lloyd, Thomas F., Historic District, with 37 contributing buildings. 42 historic buildings in all.
1% of Carrboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), 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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
1939
1939
1939
1939
2003
