Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns · #471 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Hiram Griggs House and the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1810.
The Berne post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name. Seven smaller post offices, Beaver Dam (1827), Reidsville (1832) and Helderburgh (1846), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 76% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Berne is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #471 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 Berne’s 7.5 sits near the middle of its state (41% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 listings 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.
Berne’s post office has been open since 1815. 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Berne’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1820 and 1930, then more than doubled.
22 censuses, 1810–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Berne’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Berne.
The town of Berne was originally spelled "Bern", until the Berne Post Office was established in 1825. It was created in 1795 from part of the town of Rensselaerville. In 1822 the northern half of Berne was spun off to form the new town of Knox.
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 hereJohn Warren Butterfield is born here
Born hereElihu Doty is born here
Born hereJoseph P. Bradley is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Berne.
1900Berne sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Berne.
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 Berne’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Berne post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Berne is more historic than 76% of U.S. towns, #471 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.
Two places: the Hiram Griggs House (listed 2010) and the St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church (2016).
20% of Berne’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (6), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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