Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Cambridge State Aid Bridge and the W.H. Faling House. Its Register listings are the Cambridge State Aid Bridge and the W.H. Faling House. Below: maps from 1899 on and the census since 1880.
Cambridge first appears in the census in 1880. Another post office, Medicine Creek (1873), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cambridge is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Nebraska towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Nebraska town has 16.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Cambridge’s 18.5 sits near the middle of its state (63% of Nebraska towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 Cambridge’s history is told.
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.
1899Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cambridge.
Cambridge was originally called Pickleville, and under the latter name was laid out in the 1870s by J. W. Pickle. When the railroad was built through the settlement in 1880, the town was renamed Cambridge by railroad officials. The etymology of the name is uncertain: it may have been named after Cambridge, Massachusetts, or after Cambridge in England.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cambridge. 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 Cambridge.
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.
Between 106 and 1,352 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cambridge’s Wikipedia page.
Cambridge’s post office has been open since 1880. Another post office, Medicine Creek, 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).
The Cambridge post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Cambridge is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns. 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.
Two places: the Cambridge State Aid Bridge (listed 1992) and the W.H. Faling House (1999).
42% of Cambridge’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.1 points), against a typical 18% for a Nebraska town; the median home was built in 1955.
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 (7), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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