Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 17% of U.S. towns · #212 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Elon was built recently: 0.6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. 2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 6 buildings. Below: maps from 1970 on and the census since 1900.
Elon first appears in the census in 1900. Another post office, Glen Raven (1912), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 17% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Elon is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #212 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 Elon’s 6.3 sits near the middle of its state (48% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 Elon’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1900 and 1910, then grew more than tenfold.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Elon’s Wikipedia page.
Another post office, Glen Raven, 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 Elon.
Elon began in 1881 as a North Carolina Railroad depot in between the stations of Goldsboro and Charlotte, called "Mill Point” because it was envisioned to be a shipping point for area cotton mills. Locals called it “Boone’s Crossing.” Because of a growing population, a post office was built, which established a more permanent residency in 1888.
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.
BuiltElon College Historic District is built
BuiltJohnston Hall is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Elon. 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 Elon.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Elon itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Elon post office opened in 1900, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Elon is more historic than 17% of U.S. towns, #212 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.
Two places: the Elon College Historic District (listed 1988) and the Johnston Hall (1994).
0.6% of Elon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1997.
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 (1), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
2023
