Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns · #123 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
Most of Midway was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Its Register listing is the Hamilton Everhart Farm. Below: maps from 1949 on.
The Midway post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Eller (1911), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
The town of Midway derives its name from its relative geographic location, "midway" between the cities of Winston-Salem and Lexington.
Urban sprawl and annexation by the city of Winston-Salem has muddled the logical apparency of the town's name since the city limits of Winston-Salem now share a border with Midway while Lexington's nearest border is 7 miles (11 km) away.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Midway is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #123 of 290 in North Carolina. Its age holds 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 Midway’s 8.2 sits near the middle of its state (51% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 →
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 Midway’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Midway.
Bethany Reformed and Lutheran Church Cemetery and the Hamilton Everhart Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Midway. 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 Midway.
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.
Midway had its own post office from 1830 to 1907. Another post office, Eller, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Midway post office opened in 1830, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Midway is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #123 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 Hamilton Everhart Farm (listed 1984).
3% of Midway’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1983.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
2006
