Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns · #249 of 758 in New York. What drives it
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 7 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and old-book passages.
The Fulton post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Oswego Falls (1810), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fulton is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #249 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
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 Fulton’s 13.3 sits near the middle of its state (51% of New York towns have fewer) while its 15 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fulton. 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 Fulton.
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.
1890Sheet 1 of 8Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Fulton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1826. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 11,896 to 11,389 (-4%).
Passages that mention Fulton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
1846, when the Commissioners of Lucas County met at Maumee, and “upon the petition of many residents of Fulton Township ordered that the south tier of sections in township 9 south, range 4 east, be taken from Amboy Township, and attached to Fulton Township.” So, its boundaries have remained to the present. Fulton was the tenth township of Fulton County to be organized, although its settlement began within a year or two of the opening of settlement in the first of the townships to which the pioneer came.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Section six of the act by which Fulton county was erected in 1850 provided for the attachment of Fulton County to the Thirteenth Judicial District of the State of Ohio, and ordered “the Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court of the county of Fulton shall be holden in the township of Pike until the permanent seat of justice shall be established within and for the said county.” In pursuance of this, and by virture of his power under the state constitution then in effect, the governor of the state named three residents of Fulton
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
— fomierh Warrensbush: while (.■aiighnaw3g;t bnd its sub'^tantial stone church — built in 1763 — and surrounding hamlet, and Johnstown, the shire town of Montgomerycounty, as it had been of Tryon county, was a village of considerable impf)rtance. The creation of Fulton county caused a division al this town, and the northern portion was set off April i8ih. 1838, to form the town of Perth Fulton county . which bounds it on the north.
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 archiveFulton. (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveStreet map of Fulton, N.Y. - with street numbers
In the archiveMengel Company, Fulton, New York. LOC gsc.5a192883 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. 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 Fulton’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Fulton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Fulton’s post office has been open since 1826. Another post office, Oswego Falls, 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Fulton post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Fulton is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #249 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.
8 listings: 5 buildings, among them the US Post Office-Fulton (listed 1989, the first), 1 historic district, the West Broadway Commercial Historic District, with 7 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 15 historic buildings in all.
41% of Fulton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1951.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (8), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
1866
1867
1947