Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #552 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Enfield Falls Mill and Miller's House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1830.
Enfield dates its founding to 1804 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1830.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Enfield is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #552 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 Enfield’s 6.0 sits near the middle of its state (38% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Enfield’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1840 and 1920, then grew 3-fold.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Enfield’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Enfield. 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 Enfield.
From Wikipedia’s history of Enfield.
The Sullivan Expedition of 1779 passed through the area, which later became part of the Central New York Military Tract.
The town was first settled around 1804. The Town of Enfield was formed in 1821 from part of the Town of Ulysses.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Enfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of Enfield was erected from the southwestern part of Ulysses on the Kith of March, 1831, and received its name from the town of Enfield, in Connecticut. The records of the town down to the year 1845 are lost.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first settlement of Enfield was about the beginning of the pressent century, several years after white pioneers had begun the making of their rude homes within the limits of the other towns of Tompkins ■county. Ithaca, Trumansburg, Jacksonville and Goodwin's Point in this immediate vicinity had each been settled before a pioneer penetrated into what finally was taken from Ulysses to form the town of Enfield.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Enfield records show that Lieut. Thomas Jones was no common man. Elected as Ensign, and later as Lieutenant of the Enfield Train Band, he developed military ability; but his strongest attainments seem to have been in the management of Church and Colonial affairs. A partial record of the offices to which he was elected from 1709 to 1744 will show this to be true.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
fact does not interfere with the date (1759) of his removal to Barkhamsted, as he continued to hold landed interests in Somers, and as Barkhamsted was not incorporated until 1779 his military and residence interests were not broken from Enfield. A few extracts from the records will be of interest: " Feb. 12, " 1771, Dea Nathl. Horton, and Israel Jones Committee of the Proprietors laid off a tract of land in Somers, to Jonathan and ' David Terry. * * ='' In all ye above lines allowing one rod
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 archiveEnfield (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Enfield’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.
Enfield had its own post office from 1822 to 1874. Another post office, Enfield Centre, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1804, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Enfield’s post office opened in 1822, and the census of 1830 counted 2,332 people here.
Enfield is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #552 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.
One place: the Enfield Falls Mill and Miller's House (listed 1979).
13% of Enfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.9 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 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.
1866
2009