Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns · #63 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Bound Brook Station, the Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook and the Old Stone Arch Bridge. Below: 15 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1870.
Bound Brook dates its founding to 1681 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bound Brook is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #63 of 468 in New Jersey. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 Bound Brook’s 2.5 sits near the middle of its state (43% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bound Brook. 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 Bound Brook.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereThomas De Witt Talmage is born here
BuiltBound Brook Station is built
In the archive1950 Census Enumeration District Maps - New Jersey (NJ) - Somerset County - Bound Brook -…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltPresbyterian Church at Bound Brook is built
In the archiveBound Brook in The Courier-News of Bridgewater, New Jersey on 24 August 1911
In the archiveBound Brook, New Jersey
Born hereJeffrey Chiesa is born hereFire 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.
1885Sheet 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 Bound Brook.
The area was first settled in 1681 and a community was established near the Bound Brook stream of the same name, which flows into the Raritan River via the Green Brook on the eastern side of the borough. The brook, which was mentioned as a boundary in a Native American deed, provides the source of the borough's name.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Bound Brook, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The earliest settlem(?nts in the county of Somerset, were made in the village of Bound Brook and its vicinity. The oldest land title, dated May 4, 1681, in tins portion of the State, secured at once all the land on which the villao-e now stands, extending from Bound Brook to Middlebrook and from the North side of the River to the Mountain. We have given in another j)lace the names of the Indian grantors and the purchasers.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
from this point along the line of the old Indian trail, the settlement soon spread across the present borders of Somerset, and with the settlement of Bound Brook in 1681 the county history begins as a matter of written record.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Just at the edge of the wood, east of Chimney Rock, huts were erected as quarters for the officers, and everything done which either safety or coraf )rt demanded in the emergency. At Bound Brook a strong redoubt was constructed, commanding the bridge over that miery little stream, just north of the present Railroad crossing, looking to any attack to be made from the way of New Bruns wick. Having taken, in this way, all possible precaution
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
18801950 Census Enumeration District Maps - New Jersey (N…1911Bound Brook in The Courier-News of Bridgewater, New J…
1913Bound Brook in The Courier-News of Bridgewater, New J…1936Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Bound Brook region. New Jersey
1936Housing at Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Housing at Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Housing at Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Housing at Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Housing at Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Series of houses. Bound Brook, New Jersey
1936Houses closely constructed
1936Street
1936South Bound Brook near Edwood Terrace, Franklin Towns…
1936South Bound Brook near Edwood Terrace, Franklin Towns…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 Bound Brook’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.
Grew from 556 people in 1870 to 11,988 in 2020, more than tenfold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bound Brook’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1681, according to Wikidata. Bound Brook’s post office opened in 1800, and the census of 1870 counted 556 people here.
Bound Brook is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #63 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.
Three places: the Bound Brook Station (listed 1984), the Presbyterian Church at Bound Brook (2007) and the Old Stone Arch Bridge (2008).
28% of Bound Brook’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 1957.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (12), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
