Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Otter Lake Community Church. Below: old-book passages.
The Forestport post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Otter Lake (1895), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Forestport is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls 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 Forestport’s 11.8 sits near the middle of its state (49% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Forestport’s history is told.
Forestport’s post office has been open since 1855. Another post office, Otter Lake, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Forestport.
At the end of the 19th century, many of the town's population were found to be involved in a conspiracy to divert funds set aside for canal repair for the Black River Canal. Sections of the Black River Canal were pick axed so as to profit from repair work, infamously known as the "Forestport Breaks".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Forestport, cut from the printed page as they were published.
George Hovey settled in Forestport in 1847, though he had visited the locality years before. Edwin Benedict, now a resident of the village, is the son of Daniel Benedict, who settled about four miles from Forestport, in the town of Boonville, about 1805. He came from Saratoga Co., N. Y., with his father, John Benedict.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
George Ilovey settled in Forestport in 1847, though he had visited the locality years before. Edwin Benedict, now a resident of the village, is the son of Daniel Benedict, who settled about four miles from Forestport, in the town of Boonville, about 1805. He came from Saratoga Co., N. Y., with his father, John Benedict.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A telegraph line extends from Alder Creek station through this village to Forestport, on Black River, at the head of the canal-feeder. The latter village, or a portion of it, formerly known as Williamsville, is in this town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A telegraph line extends from Alder Creek station through this village to Forestport, on Black River, at the head of the canal-feeder. The latter village, or a portion of it, formerly known as Williamsville, is in this town.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Forestport itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Forestport post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Forestport is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns. 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 Otter Lake Community Church (listed 2004).
25% of Forestport’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1970.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
