Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #170 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
Most of Montgomery Township was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. 9 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 55 buildings between them. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1790.
Montgomery Township dates its founding to 1798 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Montgomery Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #170 of 468 in New Jersey. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Montgomery Township’s 25.2 sits above most of its state (76% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 60 historic buildings outnumber those of 86% 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 Montgomery Township’s history is told.
Two other post offices 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).
Lost half of its people between 1830 and 1900, then grew more than tenfold.
23 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Montgomery Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Montgomery Township.
Before European settlement began, the area now known as Montgomery Township was inhabited for approximately 20,000 years by Lenni Lenape tribal groups. The current Native American population of Montgomery Township is just under 0.1% of the total population.
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.
BuiltDirck Gulick House is built
BuiltReformed Dutch Church of Blawenburg is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveMillstone Valley Scenic Byway - Historic White House with Green ShuttersOne decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2023Route 206 and Orchard Road office complex north of Pr…
202323 Orchard Road office building in Skillman New Jersey
2022Montgomery Township, NJ municipal center, Sept 2022
2020Social distancing with curbside pickup at Mooyah burg…
2020Rock Brook in Skillman Park
2015The cabin in the woods (Unsplash)
2015Montgomery High School NJ 1
2015Bloodroot 640 424
2014Rock brook skillman nj
2013View looking east from the bridge in Fall, 2013
2005Montgomery twp nj 035Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Montgomery Township. 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 Montgomery Township.
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1798, according to Wikidata. Montgomery Township’s post office opened in 1823, and the first U.S. census counted 1,875 people here in 1790.
Montgomery Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #170 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.
9 listings: 4 buildings, 2 historic districts, the Bridgepoint Historic District and the Blawenburg Historic District, with 55 contributing buildings, and 3 structures. 60 historic buildings in all.
5% of Montgomery Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 (13), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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