Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Skinner-Tinkham House. Below: maps from 1897 on and the census since 1820.
The Barre post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, South Barre (1829), Barre Centre (1836) and East Barre (1852), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Barre is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Barre’s 10.5 sits near the middle of its state (46% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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.
Barre had its own post office from 1821 to 1842. Four 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Barre’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Barre. 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 Barre.
From Wikipedia’s history of Barre.
The Town of Barre /ˈbæri/ was founded in 1818 from part of the Town of Gaines. The town was named after the birthplace of an early settler.
The Benjamin Franklin Gates House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Barre, cut from the printed page as they were published.
married Elvira Star,r, May 15th, 1817. Mr. Benton took up a large tract of land two miles south of Albion, on w'hich he resided, i* ^ After the town of Barre was organized, and about 1818 or '19 the first postoffice in the town was established and called Barre, and Mr. Benton was appointed'postmaster, an office he held many years.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
I attended the first school taught in Barre, in a log school house, which stood' on the west side of Oak Orchard road, in what is now the village of Albion, al so attended the first town meeting in Barre after .
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Peaked at 7,228 in 1860; 2,025 people lived here in 2010.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Barre’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Barre itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Barre post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Barre is more historic than 88% 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.
One place: the Skinner-Tinkham House (listed 2004).
50% of Barre’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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 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.
