Founding year: the first Alfred post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Alfred’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Alfred is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #105 of 758 in New York. 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 Alfred’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 Alfred’s 243 sits above most of its state (84% of New York towns have fewer) while its 117 historic buildings outnumber those of 90% 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 (±8.8 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 Alfred’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
"The Seneca Indians were the original owners of this land, but following the American victory in the American Revolutionary War, "all foreign claims of ownership were extinguished, and the power of the Indian Confederacy was broken... but New York and Massachusetts each claimed ownership under conflicting patents. In 1786 New York conceded the lands to Massachusetts but retained the sovereignty." Ownership of the land changed hands several times until 1791, when "most of the lands of Alfred were sold to the settlers at from $2 to $4 per acre."
Passages that mention Alfred, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Early history of the electro-magnetic telegraph from letters and journals of Alfred Vail1914Read the page →
Read the text
Alfred Vail to Wm. M. Swain: Morristown, Dec. n, 1856. I have reason to believe that the American Telegraph Company in their endeavor to procure an exclusive privilege of the Corporation of the City of New York to bury telegraph wires thro the streets of that city, have for their object a monopoly which will sooner or later require us to take down our poles and submit to an exaction not very profitable or pleasant in the form of an exorbitant price for the use of their underground wires. I think the matter requires attention and I would suggest the propriety of at once petitioning the Corporations of your city,
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
Alfred, 1866 to 1980
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Alfred. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1964Alfred sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Alfred.
Every building
Alfred, building by building, 1904–1909
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.
The Alfred post office opened in 1817, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Alfred rank for history?
Alfred is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #105 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 Alfred?
39% of Alfred’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1954.
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 (18), 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.
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