Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 71% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Crescent Theatre. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
Sussex first appears in the census in 1880. Another post office, Deckertown (1816), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sussex is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age 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 Sussex’s 4.7 sits near the middle of its state (55% of New Jersey towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 Sussex’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sussex. 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 Sussex.
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.
1904Sheet 1 of 5Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sussex.
Sussex was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on October 14, 1891, as Deckertown, from portions of Wantage Township. The borough's original name was for settler Peter Decker. The borough was renamed Sussex on March 2, 1902.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Sussex, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The Morris and Essex Railroad passes along the southern corner of Sussex County, with stations at Waterloo and Stanhope. These villages are in the township of Byram, Sussex Co., but the stations are ju-i over the line, in Morris. This road forms a valuable outlet for the Sussex road, both east and west, extending, as it does, from New York to Easton, Pa., and being an important division of the Delaware,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1837 the number of post-offices in the State had increased to two hundred and seventy-one, while those in Sussex County had attained the number of twentyfive, showing a considerably greater ratio of increase for Sussex County than for the State at large. The post-offices, with the names of postmasters, of Sussex County in 1837 were as follows : Andover, Joseph Northrup ; Augusta, Abraham Bray ; Benville, Benja-
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.
Born hereGrant Decker is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveSussex NJ 1st Presby PHS775
In the archiveNew Jersey's High Point Monument on the Appalachian Trail2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Sussex’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.
Between 370 and 2,418 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sussex’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Another post office, Deckertown, 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).
The Sussex post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1891.
Sussex is more historic than 71% 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 Crescent Theatre (listed 2005).
46% of Sussex’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 15% for a New Jersey town; the median home was built in 1948.
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 (6), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (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, 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.
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