Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 26% of U.S. towns · #187 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Kitty Hawk was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1987. Its Register listing is the Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1940 on, and the census since 1990.
The Kitty Hawk post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 26% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kitty Hawk is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #187 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 Kitty Hawk’s 2.7 sits near the middle of its state (43% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
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 →
From Wikipedia’s history of Kitty Hawk.
There are a number of folk legends regarding the origin of the name Kitty Hawk, which has also been spelled Chickahawk, Ketterhock, etc. Roger Payne concludes that it was an Algonquin word chicahauk meaning "a place to hunt geese". The spelling "Kitty Hawk" was adopted by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1959.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kitty Hawk. 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 Kitty Hawk.
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 Kitty Hawk’s 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.
Between 1,937 and 3,689 people in every census since 1990.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kitty Hawk’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Kitty Hawk itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Kitty Hawk’s post office has been open since 1878.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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.
The Kitty Hawk post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kitty Hawk is more historic than 26% of U.S. towns, #187 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.
One place: the Kitty Hawk Life-Saving Station (listed 1984).
2% of Kitty Hawk’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1987.
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 the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (1), 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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