Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1830.
The Boylston post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Boylston Centre (1869), East Boylston (1869) and North Boylston (1891), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Boylston had its own post office from 1852 to 1867. 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 Boylston’s history is told.
Peaked at 1,283 in 1880; 549 people lived here in 2010.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boylston’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Boylston.
The region was first called "Campania" and was first settled circa 1812. Boylston was created from part of the Town of Orwell in 1828. The population of the town was always small.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Boylston, cut from the printed page as they were published.
within the present limits of the town, and was frequently called to preside over petty trials, solemnize marriage, and transact other legal business incident to that office. He was chosen by the town of Boylston to oppose the incorporation of the Second Precinct of Boylston, Holden and Sterling, and again in 1807 to oppose the incorporation of that Precinct as a separate town, and was one ol" the committee to divide the town proi)erty between the towns of Boylston and West Boylston; and was always deeply
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
bring a separation as the most direct and certain means of destroying the Town. A petition was presented to the Legislature for the Incorporation of a new Town to be composed of certain sections of the towns of Boylston, Sterling & Holden ; on this Petition the said towns were cited and their opposition having proved successful, the next effort was to obtain an Incorporation of the present Precinct. Not satisfied with the accomplishment of this purpose, a petition was soon after preferred for an enlarge-
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 archiveBoylston Business Directory.; Boylston (Village); Boylston (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Boylston. 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 Boylston.
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 Boylston’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Boylston itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Boylston post office opened in 1852, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (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.
