Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Harrells was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Its Register listing is the Lewis Highsmith Farm. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1984 on, and the census since 1880.
Harrells first appears in the census in 1880. Two smaller post offices, Harrells Store (1837) and Bland (1887), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Harrells’s history is told.
Peaked at 259 in 1960; 160 people lived here in 2020.
9 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Harrells’ Wikipedia page.
Harrells’s post office has been open since 1952. Two other post offices 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 Harrells.
The Lewis Highsmith Farm and Dr. John B. Seavey House and Cemetery are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1969, a private Christian school, Harrells Christian Academy was founded 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 SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harrells.
1984Harrells sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Harrells.
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 Harrells’ 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.
The Harrells post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Lewis Highsmith Farm (listed 1986).
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 the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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