Founding year: the first Alden post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Alden’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Alden is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #533 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Alden’s 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 Alden’s 3.8 sits below most of its state (31% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (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 Alden’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town of Alden, which had previously been part of Clarence, was established on March 27, 1823, and codified in the Laws of the State of New York, Sess.46, ch. 89 (1823). Part of Alden was later given up to form the town of Marilla in 1853.
In 1856, the community of Alden in the town set itself off by incorporating as a village. The town was made more popular by the discovery of the black water baths in 1891. People would travel from Buffalo and from areas far east of the town to experience the healing powers of the black water baths.
Alden of Hertfordshire, a lawyer of the Middle Temple, that the coat of arms mentioned in Timothy Alden's American Inscriptions (Vol. IV.) was granted in 1607.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
But the law cannot fairly be named a competitor with medicine, which for many years has drawn a goodly number of Alden descendants. Dr. Abiathar Alden of Scarborough, Me., a physician and, it is said, also a metaphysician, enjoys the rather unenviable distinction of having been perhaps the only Alden who was a Tory at the time of the Revolutionary War. Dr. Seth Alden (1749- 1809) of Cald-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Alden Farm gave way to this reasonable suggestion, and the notes of preparation began to be heard at Crone's Corner. Since they had sought and found the secret of good luck in carrying out their plans, the preparations went on pleasantly. We have seen that Alden Farm itself could not excel Mrs. Crone in the manner in which she pre-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
There was, somehoio, an attraction about all that was going on at Alden Farm, which made the children of the parish want to go, though their " notions " were sneered at by both old and young. Some of the old folks went so far as to say that if Patience Alden should send out word to the young folks to come to Alden Farm to be whipped all
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.
By decade
Alden, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewAlden (Village); Alden (Township); West Alden (Village); Alden Business Directory. Alden Center (Village); Alden Center…, 1866
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Alden’s page.
The Alden post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Alden rank for history?
Alden is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #533 of 758 in New York. 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 Alden?
19% of Alden’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 (5), 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.
1880
1880
2021
