Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Brandon S. Jacobsen · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 52% of U.S. towns · #299 of 468 in New Jersey. What drives it
Most of Raritan Township was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. 4 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 68 buildings between them. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1870.
Raritan Township dates its founding to 1868 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Raritan Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #299 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 Raritan Township’s 32.0 sits above most of its state (78% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 78 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
Four 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Raritan 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 Raritan 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Raritan Township.
Raritan was originally established as a subdivision within Bridgewater Township by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on April 3, 1868. Despite its size, the town has an extensive history, that encompasses local, national, and even global history.
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.
In the archiveComplaint by Some Members of the Dutch Reformed Church, Living at Raritan, etc in (...) N…BuiltJohn Reading Farmstead is built
In the archiveJacob Rutsen Hardenbergh (1736-1790) letter from December 6, 1777
In the archiveRaritan (Township)
In the archive1950 Census Enumeration District Maps - New Jersey (NJ) - Somerset County - Raritan - ED …
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveIndustries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MAKING CLOTH FOR ARMY UNIFORMS. Rarita…5 decades in the archive, from the 1720s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1873Raritan (Township)18801950 Census Enumeration District Maps - New Jersey (N…1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…
1917Industries of War - Cloth - Rariten Woolen Mills - MA…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 Raritan Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,009 people in 1870 to 7,835 in 2020, 7 times over.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Raritan Township’s Wikipedia page.
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 1868, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Raritan Township’s post office opened in 1836, and the census of 1870 counted 1,009 people here.
Raritan Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #299 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.
4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the John Reading Farmstead (listed 1978, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Raritan-Readington South Branch Historic District and the Reaville Historic District, with 68 contributing buildings. 78 historic buildings in all.
5% of Raritan Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.2 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, 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.
