Founding year: the first Audubon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1905.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Audubon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Audubon is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #292 of 468 in New Jersey. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Audubon’s overall grade.
New Jersey towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New Jersey town has 3.7 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Audubon’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (12% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata gives 1905.
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 →
What stands out about Audubon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area that was to become Audubon was initially settled in the late 17th Century by various land owners and was primarily used for farms and mills. In 1695 the land now known as the Borough of Audubon was part of Newton Township. By the early 1700s, the area's first families were building their homesteads. Today, two of these original farmhouses remain in Audubon. The Low-Stokes-Nicholson house was built c. 1732 by John Low. Simon Breach built his home, known locally as "The Mansion House", in about 1740. A large addition was built by shipbuilder John Dialogue in c. 1853. Samuel Nicholson Rhodes, a local naturalist and author, owned this farm, which he named "Cedarcroft", from 1898 to 1912. It was Mrs. Rhodes who came up with the name for the town. When the Atlantic City Railroad arrived in the 1880s the local farms were subdivided into the smaller communities of Audubon, Cedarcroft a…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
The Audubon post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1905.
How does Audubon rank for history?
Audubon is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #292 of 468 in New Jersey. 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.
How old are the homes in Audubon?
56% of Audubon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (9), 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.