Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Greenfield Meeting House. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1800.
Greenfield dates its founding to 1791 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.
More historic than 73% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greenfield is more historic than 73% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
New Hampshire towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Hampshire town has 9.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Greenfield’s 5.8 sits near the middle of its state (38% of New Hampshire towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greenfield’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1810 and 1930, then grew 4-fold.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Greenfield’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Greenfield. 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 Greenfield.
From Wikipedia’s history of Greenfield.
Originally known as "Lyndeborough Addition", the area was first settled by the Lynde family in 1753. Separated from the nearest church and school by the Monadnock hills, the residents successfully petitioned to form a new town in 1791, using the name "Greenfield" to highlight the area's level, fertile ground.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Greenfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The building of the Peterborough Railroad, from Wilton to Greenfield (it never got to Peterborough), and the Monadnock Railroad, from Winchendon, Mass., to Peterborough, subsequently gave depots within some six or seven miles, respectively, of Hancock Centre before the town had railroad facilities of its own. Prior to 1870 a survey of a route for a railroad from .Manchester to Keene had been made
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Before 1795 a road was laid out " beginning at the easterly line of the town of Greenfield, running southwesterly to John Grant's east line, south side of Grant's house, till it strikes the road that leads by Philip Fletcher's to Lyndeborough meeting-house."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Survey
2017Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center
2017Covered walkway, Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Cen…
2014NH 31 northbound
2013GreenfieldStatePark OtterLakeInWinter
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Greenfield, New Hampshire
2011Graveyard in
2011FSNatDisabilityMonth - Flickr - USDAgovNo 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 Greenfield’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.
Greenfield’s post office has been open since 1808.
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.
In 1791, according to Wikidata. Greenfield’s post office opened in 1808, and the census of 1800 counted 934 people here.
Greenfield is more historic than 73% 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.
One place: the Greenfield Meeting House (listed 1983).
20% of Greenfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 17% for a New Hampshire town; the median home was built in 1981.
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 (16), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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