Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Faith was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2000. Below: maps from 1962 on and the census since 1910.
The Faith post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1903.
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 Faith’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Faith.
Shuping's Mill Complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Historian and sociologist James W. Loewen has identified Faith as one of several possible sundown towns in North Carolina.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Faith, cut from the printed page as they were published.
And it did come to pass in less than two years after, that the East Indian Railroad Company put a railroad right through that section of country and, I was told, a station within two miles of Bassim Faith Mission House. That was the name inscribed on the front of the building. While I was in Africa a Mrs. Wills, from Bassa, Liberia, was in London on a visit. She went to a meeting at Miss Mason's House of Rest, and there she met a lady who told her to tell me
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Faith. 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 Faith.
Grew from 352 people in 1910 to 819 in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Faith’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Faith post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1903.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
