Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Latham House · Photo: Nyttend · Public domainMore historic than 88% of U.S. towns · #18 of 290 in North Carolina. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 258 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1850.
Plymouth dates its founding to 1787 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1850.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Plymouth is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #18 of 290 in North Carolina. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Plymouth’s 809 sits above most of its state (97% of North Carolina towns have fewer) while its 263 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Plymouth’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1870 and 1880, then grew 3-fold.
18 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Plymouth’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Plymouth.
The Moratuc tribe of American Indians was living in a large settlement on Welch Creek near the current Domtar pulp mill site in 1585 when the area was explored by English settlers. Moratuc was an Indian name for the Roanoke River. The Moratuc tribe were probably an Algonquian tribe, but there is debate that they may have been Iroquois.
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.
Born hereAugustin Daly is born here
Born hereLouis C. Latham is born here
In the archiveFLIN 116 - North Carolina
In the archiveMichael C Horgan framed
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereDon Brown is born here
Born hereJ. B. Smoove is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2007Pettigrew 01
2006Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge (Plymouth, Nor…
2006River Lighthouse Museum, a replica of the 1866 Roanok…
2004Replica of Roanoke River Light NCarolina-037
2004NCMap-doton-Plymouth
2003FEMA - 8572 - Photograph by Dennis Wheeler taken on 0…
2003FEMA - 8570 - Photograph by Dennis Wheeler taken on 0…
2003FEMA - 8440 - Photograph by Mark Wolfe taken on 09-21…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Plymouth. 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 Plymouth.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1894Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Plymouth’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Plymouth’s post office has been open since 1792.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
In 1787, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Plymouth’s post office opened in 1792, and the census of 1850 counted 951 people here.
Plymouth is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #18 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.
4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Latham House (listed 1976, the first), and 1 historic district, the Plymouth Historic District, with 258 contributing buildings. 263 historic buildings in all.
14% of Plymouth’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (11), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1864
1864
