Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1808.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Avon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Avon is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #43 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Avon’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 Avon’s 1,109 sits above most of its state (96% of New York towns have fewer) while its 379 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% 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 (±9.2 points). Two sources give 1797.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Avon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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 area around and including what would become Avon village was inhabited for millennia by Paleo-Indians and later by the Seneca people, the westernmost tribe of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). After the Iroquois title to the land was extinguished in 1788 with the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, white and Black settlement of the area began. In 1789, Dr. Timothy Hosmer, Maj. Isaiah Thompson, William Wadsworth, and others from Hartford, Connecticut, purchased a tract east of the Genesee River and named it "Hartford" after their homeland. The town was organized in 1797. The town's name was changed to "Avon" in 1808 to avoid confusion with another Hartford in Washington County, New York. In 1818, part of the town was removed to form the new town of Rush. County lines shifted as well, Avon and Rush both being part of Ontario County until the formation of Livingston County and Monroe County in 182…
Passages that mention Avon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present1905 · page 622Read the page →
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THE township of Avon, which originally included the town of Rush, Monroe county, and was Nos. 10 and 11 of Range 7, was named Hartford by Hosmer and Thompson, its first purchasers from Phelps, and the name was not changed to Avon until 1808. The town of Rush was set off in 1818.
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History of Livingston County, New York, from its earliest traditions to the present1905 · page 357Read the page →
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of the Rochester and Dansville railroad. Like all similar enterprises it met with delays, disappointments and embarrassments, and the enterprise was finally wholly abandoned. Subsequently the Genesee Valley Railroad Company built a line from Rochester to Avon, finishing it in 1854; the Avon, Geneseo and Mount Morris Railroad Company extended the line to Mount Morris, opening the road to the public in 185"); and forty years after Dansville celebrated the chartering of her railroad company the cars entered that village for the first
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A history of Livingston County, New York1876 · page 407Read the page →
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lays, disappointments and embarrassments, and the enterprise was finally wholly abandoned. Subsequently the Genesee Valley Railroad company built a line from Rochester to Avon, finishing it in 1854 ; the Avon, Geneseo and Mount Morris Railroad company extended the line to Mount Morris, opening the road to the public in 1859 ; and forty years after Dansville celebrated the chartering of her railroad company, the
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1687. History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1881Read the page →
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came in with him. Henry, George, Thomas, Matthew, Caroline and Mary Ann, were born after his settlement here. Upon his removal to Avon he carried on farming, backsmithing, and the manufacture of plows. He was the first Supervisor of the town of Avon, holding that office in 1821, 1822, 1829, 1830 and 1835. He died in 1837. Of his children : — Seth, Thomas, Matthew
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
Avon, 1797 to 1906
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.
In 1797, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Avon’s post office opened in 1808, and the census of 1820 counted 1,933 people here.
How does Avon rank for history?
Avon is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #43 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 Avon?
43% of Avon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1952.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), 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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