Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1830.
The Catlin post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Martin's Hill (1828), Post Creek (1843) and Catlin Centre (1854), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 53% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Catlin is more historic than 53% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Catlin’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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.
Catlin had its own post office from 1823 to 1829. Six 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 Catlin’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1830 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Catlin’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Catlin.
The town's land was first settled circa 1816. The town of Catlin was organized in 1823 from the town of Catharine. The town of Dix was formed from the north part of Catlin in 1835. (Both Catharine and Dix are now in Schuyler County.)
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Catlin, cut from the printed page as they were published.
the south the township of Southport.*^ Still further, on April 16, 1823, two more townships were formed from the southern end of Catherine, Veteran on the east half and Catlin on the west half. Veteran was named in honor of a revolutionary soldier, Green Bentley, and Catlin from Phineas Catlin, an active, energetic man, a farmer with some knowledge of surveying.*' The northern half of Catlin was, on April
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
March 27, 1871, and St. Mark's Episcopal Church was consecrated here in January, 1888. In Erin a Baptist Church was built in 1874 and a Methodist Church in 187L The First Methodist Church is the only church in Catlin. Its cornerstone was laid on July 16, 1881, and it was dedicated on March 8, 1882. In Horseheads a colored church, called the African Union Methodist Protestant Church was organized in 1860. In 1883 they built a brick church.
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 archiveCatlin Business Directory; Catlin (Township)
In the archiveCatlin Settlement (Village); Lincklaen Business Notices; Lincklaen (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Catlin. 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 Catlin.
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 Catlin’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Catlin itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Catlin post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Catlin is more historic than 53% 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.
17% of Catlin’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1975.
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), 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.
