Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1898 on, and the census since 1880.
The Dexter post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Dexter’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Dexter. 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 Dexter.
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.
1898Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Dexter.
The village was formerly called Fish Island and was part of the lands belonging to Jacob and John Brown. The village was renamed Dexter after Simon Newton Dexter.
Dexter became an incorporated village in 1855, with a population of about 528.
The Dexter Universalist Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Dexter, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The village of Dexter was incorporated May 8, 1855, under general law, and amended by special act April 15, 1857, and January 28, 1865.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
until 1816. A bounty of fifty cents was offered on each fox scalp in 1822, 1823, and 1831. In 1828 the highway commissioners were directed to offer as stock to the plankroad leading from the bridge at Dexter to Bagg's Corners, on the Watertown and Sacket's Harbor plank-road, half the cost of said bridge, and in case of refusal to accept, to petition that the bridge should be made a toll bridge.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
usually $250, per annum, and amounting to $9,050. In 1846 money was raised to build a bridge over Perch River, near its mouth, and in 1835, 1848,49, 50, to build one at Fish Island, in the village of Dexter. Bounties on wolves of $5, were offered in 1807 — 1818; of $8 in 1821; of $10 in 1806, 8, 9, 11, 12,20; of $15 in 1804, 13, 19; of $20 in 18=15, 16; and of $25 in 1814, 17. Fox bounties of $1, in 1815,20, 21; of $2-50 in 1817, 19; and of 50 cts. in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
At the head of Black River Bay, and favored by the double advantages of a fine water power and convenient harbor, is the village of Dexter, named in compliment to S. Newton Dexter of Whitesboro, who has been extensively interested in the business of the place, which formerly bore the name of Fish Island. The lands in this vicinity were early purchased by John and Jacob Brown, who in 1811, commenced a dam, that was swept off, but rebuilt, and a saw mill was got in operation in February 1813.
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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2010Dexter Universalist Church Jul 10No 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 Dexter’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 487 and 1,164 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Dexter’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Dexter post office opened in 1838, 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 (18), 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.
1917