Founding year: the first Cricket post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Cricket’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cricket is more historic than 14% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Cricket’s overall grade.
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 Cricket’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±2.1 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Cricket’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cricket. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1889Wilkesboro sheet · 1:125,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cricket.
The story so far
Cricket, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Cricket yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Cricket is a census-designated place (CDP) located between Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro in Wilkes County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, Cricket had a population of 1,966.
Its first post office opened in 1888. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,855 to 1,966 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Cricket, 1888 to 1953
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Cricket post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cricket rank for history?
Cricket is more historic than 14% 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.
How old are the homes in Cricket?
1% of Cricket’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.1 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
