Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns · #509 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Saint Mark's Church and the Dr. John Ives House. Its Register listings are the Saint Mark's Church and the Dr. John Ives House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1840.
The DeWitt post office opened in 1835, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Orville (1815), Collamer (1849) and Messina Springs (1850), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, DeWitt is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #509 of 758 in New York. 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 DeWitt’s 1.6 sits below most of its state (23% of New York towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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.
DeWitt had its own post office from 1835 to 1955. Three 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 DeWitt’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of DeWitt. 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 DeWitt.
From Wikipedia’s history of DeWitt.
DeWitt was part of the Central New York Military Tract. The first settlers arrived around 1789.
The original Erie Canal progressed through the town in 1825. DeWitt was formed in 1835 from the Town of Manlius and was named in honor of Moses DeWitt, a major in the militia, a county judge, and one of the first settlers of the county.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention DeWitt, cut from the printed page as they were published.
luctantly accepted the most prominent offices of his town, such as Supervisor three years, one of which was unanimous with the exception of a single vote ; Assessor in the town of DeWitt for several years ; and Commissioner of Highways, in the old town of Manlius.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
two deposits of marl, which separate three deposits of muck, with stumps and roots chiefly of tamarack and balsam."* Southeast of the village of DeWitt, in excavating for the canal feeder, stumps were found some feet below the surface, showing that a forest had been destroyed by some rise in the water, caused perhaps by a dam of driftwood. The trees died and decayed to the surface of the water, the
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 Survey
In the archiveWhite Lake Area Map (1922)
In the archiveFRONT ELEVATION - Dr. Ives House, East Seneca Turnpike, Jamesville, Onondaga County, NY2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2023I-481 nb approaching exit 3W, July 2023
2018A portion of the canal and towpath at the Old Erie Ca…
2018A portion of the canal and towpath at the Old Erie Ca…
2018Footbridge leading to the canal and towpath at the Ol…
2018Untitled photo
2018I-90 West Thruway - Exit 34A - I-481
2016DeWitt-Fiddlers-Green
2015Jamesville-Quarry-2015-1108
2015Int90eRoad-Exit34A-Int481sign
2015I-481 aerial in
2015I-481 Aerial Curve, April 2015
2009Untitled photo
2006Dewittofficebuilding2
2006Dewittofficebuilding1
2006DeWittneighborhood2
2006DeWitthillshousing
2004DewittwegmansNo 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 DeWitt’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.
Between 2,802 and 29,198 people in every census since 1840.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on DeWitt’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The DeWitt post office opened in 1835, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
DeWitt is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns, #509 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 Saint Mark's Church (listed 1997) and the Dr. John Ives House (1985).
19% of DeWitt’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (16), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (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.
