Founding year: the first Chittenango post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1842.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Chittenango’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Chittenango is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #621 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Chittenango’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 Chittenango’s 2.1 sits below most of its state (25% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1842 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 →
What stands out about Chittenango’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1870 and 1920, then grew 7-fold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Chittenango’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Chittenango, building by building, 1884–1911
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Chittenango, 1803 to 2010
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The name of the village is derived from the Oneida name for Chittenango Creek, Chu-de-nääng′, meaning "where the water falls down". While the name "Chittenango" is often thought by locals to mean "river flowing north" or "where the waters divide and run north", a reference to the direction of water flow from the creek's point of origin to Oneida Lake, there is no derivation for these alternatives. On an 1825 map of the area, the village is called Chittening, a name used by early settlers which is thought to be derived directly from Chu-de-nääng′. According to American anthropologist Lewis H. Morgan, who studied Iroquois customs and language in his 1851 book League of the Iroquois, the name "Chittenango" may have come from Chu-de-nääng′ Ga-hun′-da, a redundant combination of the Oneida terms for "Chittenango Creek" (Chu-de-nääng′) and "creek" (Ga-hun′-da).
Passages that mention Chittenango, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Madison county, state of New York1900 · page 660Read the page →
Read the text
It was already a thoroughfare when the first white inhabitants came to this town. Its course was direct from Oneida Castle to Chittenango, keeping south of the highland above the plaster bed of Mr. Patrick, between Canaseraga and Chittenango, coming down the hill obliquely near where the excavation for the Chittenango railroad of 1836 was made, and crossed the creek on the body of a large sycamore tree, which was lying across the stream as late as
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.
By decade
Chittenango, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
The Chittenango post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1842.
How does Chittenango rank for history?
Chittenango is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #621 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 Chittenango?
11% of Chittenango’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (12), 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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