Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Dr. Abner Benton House · Photo: JERRYE & ROY KLOTZ MD · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 98% of U.S. towns. What drives it
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 241 buildings. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1820.
The Antwerp post office opened in 1809, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Oxbow (1807) and Bentley's Corners (1851), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Antwerp is more historic than 98% 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.
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 Antwerp’s 1,367 sits above most of its state (98% of New York towns have fewer) while its 243 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The 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.
Antwerp’s post office has been open since 1809. Two 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).
Peaked at 3,414 in 1880; 1,683 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Antwerp’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Antwerp.
Settlement began circa 1803 near what is now Oxbow. The town was created from part of the town of Le Ray in 1810. In 1855, the town had the second largest number of cows in New York.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereHelen Hinsdale Rich is born here
Born hereCharles Rainsford Jennison is born here
Born hereCassius Marcellus Coolidge is born here
Born hereAlbert Woolson is born here
In the archiveAntwerp (Village); La Fargeville (Village); Ox Bow (Village); Antwerp Business Directory.…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveThe Pine Camp military area near Watertown, New York, which was expanded under FSA (Farm …
In the archiveTownsfolk at an auction in the Pine Camp expansion area on the Ingalls farm near Antwerp,…3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1935The Pine Camp military area near Watertown, New York,…1941Townsfolk at an auction in the Pine Camp expansion ar…
1941Auctioning off a dairy herd on the Ingalls farm in th…
1941Auctioning off a dairy herd on the Ingalls farm in th…
1941Auctioning off a dairy herd on the Ingalls farm in th…
1941Auction notices of farms in the Pine Camp expansion a…
1941Farmers reading auction notices of farms in the Pine …
1941Miss Elinor Adderly, school teacher in one of the twe…
1941Miss Elinor Adderly, school teacher in one of the twe…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Antwerp. 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 Antwerp.
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.
1892Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Antwerp’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, 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.
The Antwerp post office opened in 1809, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Antwerp is more historic than 98% 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.
Two places: the Dr. Abner Benton House (listed 1984) and the Village of Antwerp Historic District (2001).
49% of Antwerp’s 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 1945.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (10), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1864
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