Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1807.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Adams’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Adams is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Adams’ overall grade.
New York towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical New York town has 12.3 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Adams’ 150 sits above most of its state (80% of New York towns have fewer) while its 23 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.9 points). Two sources give 1802.
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 →
What stands out about Adams’ past
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 Adams. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1893Sackets Harbor sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Adams.
Every building
Adams, building by building, 1884–1911
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.
Settlement began around 1800 at Adams village. David Smith built a sawmill at the present site of Adams in 1801. Renamed for John Adams in 1802 (the year after his presidency ended), the town of Adams was created from the survey townships of Aleppo and Orpheus. The eastern part of Adams was taken in 1804 to form the town of Rodman. During the War of 1812, the town of Adams formed a local militia for home defense.
The Talcott Falls Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Passages that mention Adams, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Quincy and Adams County history1919 · page 640Read the page →
Read the text
Wuy Apams County CouLp APPROPRIATELY CELEBRATE It was not the good fortune of any citizen of Adams County to have any part in the formation of the State of Illinois or in the adoption of its first constitution, for at that time so far as history informs us no white man had ever set his foot on the soil now comprised in the territory of Adams County. It was not until the spring of the following year (1819) that the first white man, Willard Keyes, who afterwards became a prominent citizen of the county, while
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Genealogy and history of the Baker, Andrus, Clark, and Adams families1920 · page 7Read the page →
Read the text
The Adams Record Of the Adams genealogy I have a full and correct line of descent from Henry Adams of Braintree, Mass., up to the marriage of Sibyl Adams to David Clark, where the record will give the descent down to the present generation. The writer felt it unnecessary to follow all the thousands of branches of the Adams family as descended from Henry Adams. The family has become so numerous as to become bewildering to
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Quincy and Adams County history1919 · page 173Read the page →
Read the text
Legislature.’ A pretty good idea of how universal was the gathering, of necessity at the county seat in those primitive days, may be gleaned from the fact that at the assembling of the first court in Adams County, every man in Adams and Hancock (then a part of Adams) was either on the grand or petit jury, except two—and one of them was, and perhaps both, under indictment. Most of them were young. They had jolly old times—those limbs of the law—jolly indeed! All were instinct with the very cream of zeal, enterprise and
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.
Timeline
Adams, 1802 to 1901
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1802, according to Wikidata. Adams’ post office opened in 1807, and the census of 1820 counted 2,467 people here.
How does Adams rank for history?
Adams is more historic than 95% 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.
How old are the homes in Adams?
46% of Adams’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.9 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1949.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
1864
1864
2010
2010
2010
2010
2010
2010
2010
2010
2007
