Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1818.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Dunkirk’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dunkirk is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #246 of 758 in New York. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Dunkirk’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 Dunkirk’s 8.0 sits near the middle of its state (43% of New York towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.3 points). Two sources give 1805.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Dunkirk’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
The Iroquoian languages-speaking Erie people occupied this area of the forested lakefront along the southern shore of Lake Erie well into the 1600s, when Europeans, mostly French, started trading around the Great Lakes. They were pushed out by the Seneca people, one of the Five Nations of the powerful Haudenosaunee Confederacy, based here and further east in New York.
The European-American demarcation and settlement of Chadwick Bay began in 1826. and later the town was named after Dunkirk in France
The Dunkirk Lighthouse at Point Gratiot was built soon after and still stands. Dunkirk served as a minor railroad hub and steamship port on Lake Erie into the early 1900s. Both freight and passenger ships traveled the lakes.
Passages that mention Dunkirk, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people1921 · page 143Read the page →
Read the text
Town and City of Dunkirk — The first white men whom it can be definitely stated came into the corporate limits of the city of Dunkirk were a party of surveyors under Andrew E'licott, Surveyor-General of the United States, who in August, 1790, traversed the Lake Erie shore of Chautauqua county while engaged in establishing the western boundary of New
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Chautauqua County, New York, and its people1921 · page 148Read the page →
Read the text
By the census of 1835, Dunkirk had a population of 628, an increase of nearly one hundred per cent, since the census of 1830. This increase resulted in the incorporation of the village of Dunkirk in 1837.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Dunkirk was formed from Pomfret, Nov. 17, 1859, the division line being the north line of lots 2, 9, 15, 21, 26, 31, 35, 38. The town of Pomfret, at the time of the division, comprised the square township 4, of the 12th range, and the triangular township 5, lying north of it, containing a less area than a regular township. In the formation of Dunkirk, from the 5th township, the two southern tiers of lots were left to the town of Pomfret. Therefore Dunkirk contains only 6,632 acres, while Pomfret has an area of 28,899 acres. The probable reasons for such division are elsewhere stated. [See
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.
Timeline
Dunkirk, 1805 to 1975
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
Cardinal Mindszenty Parochial High SchoolschoolDunkirk Industrial High SchoolschoolNumber 1 Public SchoolschoolSaint Georges Roman Catholic SchoolschoolSaint Hedwig's SchoolschoolSchool Number 6school
1cemetery inside Dunkirk
Willowbrook Park
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Dunkirk’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
In 1805, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Dunkirk’s post office opened in 1818, and the census of 1870 counted 5,231 people here.
How does Dunkirk rank for history?
Dunkirk is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #246 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.
What is on the National Register in Dunkirk?
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Point Gratiot Lighthouse Complex (listed 1979, the first). 10 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Dunkirk?
49% of Dunkirk’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1941.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, 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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