Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #115 of 758 in New York. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Fort Johnson, a National Historic Landmark. Below: 14 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1840.
Amsterdam dates its founding to 1710 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1840.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Amsterdam is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #115 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 Amsterdam’s 52.0 sits above most of its state (69% of New York towns have fewer) while its 29 historic buildings outnumber those of 81% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Seven 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 Amsterdam. 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 Amsterdam.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 16Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Amsterdam.
Prior to settlement by Europeans, the region which includes Amsterdam was inhabited for centuries by the Mohawk tribe of the Iroquois Confederacy, which dominated most of the Mohawk Valley. They had pushed the Algonquin Mohican tribe to the east of the Hudson River.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Amsterdam, cut from the printed page as they were published.
pair of Flemish trunk hose, and a pipe that reached to th§ end of the bowsprit. Thus gallantly furnished, the staunch ship floated sideways, like a majestic goose, but of the harbour of the great city of Amsterdam, and all the bells, that were not otherwise engaged, rung a triple bob-major on the joyful occcasion.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Thus benignly fostered by the good St. Nicholas, the burghers of New-Amsterdam beheld their settlement increase in magnitude and population, and sopn become the metropolis of divers settlements, and an extensive territory. Already had the disastrous pride of colonies and dependencies, those banes of a sound-hearted empire, entered into their imaginations; and Fort Aurania on the Hudson, Fort Nassau on the Delaware, and Fort Goede
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.
In the archiveOld Guy Park House
In the archiveThe Village of Amsterdam (Village); Amsterdam Business Directory
In the archiveTrain Wreck by River with Street Scene (2)
In the archiveAmsterdam & Port Jackson, N.Y
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveLeighton & Valentine Co. 213600 - Main St., Amsterdam, New York back
Born hereKirk Douglas is born here
Born hereLucille Bremer is born here
In the archiveAmsterdam Armory 1800s
Born hereRaymond Tomlinson is born here7 decades in the archive, from the 1770s to the 1940s. 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 Amsterdam’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Peaked at 34,817 in 1930; 18,219 people lived here in 2020.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Amsterdam’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
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 1710, according to Wikidata. Amsterdam’s post office opened in 1825, and the census of 1840 counted 1,700 people here.
Amsterdam is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #115 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.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Fort Johnson (a National Historic Landmark since 1972). 29 historic buildings in all.
29% of Amsterdam’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 (11), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
c. 1881
c. 1881
c. 1910
1912
1917
1940
1941
1941
★ Landmark
