The story
Read it all →How Gaines came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Gaines.
The Town of Gaines was established in 1816 from a partition of the Town of Ridgeway before Orleans County was established.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
AHistory
History · Gaines
Gaines’ post office opened in 1816, and 28% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #225 of 758 in New York. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Cobblestone Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and three historic districts with 37 buildings between them. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1820.
1816first post office
5on the National Register
28%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Quick answers
How Gaines began
When was Gaines founded?
1816
The Gaines post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, West Gaines (1832), East Gaines (1846) and Childs (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,134 in 18202020 census: 3,226210 years
How historic is Gaines?
A
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Gaines post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gaines’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gaines is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #225 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 age lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gaines’ overall grade.
Founding era1816, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194027.8% of homes (±6.5) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%A−National Register5 listings, 39 historic buildings, 121 per 10,000 residents · typical NY town 12.3 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 92%
NewerOlder
New York towns of 2,500+ (758)Ahead of 70%
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 Gaines’ 121 sits above most of its state (78% of New York towns have fewer) while its 39 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Gaines’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Gaines, and 8 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1850 and 1940, then more than doubled.On the map since 18973 editions of the USGS map, 1897 to 1951. Watch Gaines change.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Gaines had its own post office from 1816 to 1907. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Gaines
West Gaines
Eagle Harbor
East Gaines
Childs
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
ChildsEagle HarborEast GainesFive CornersGaines BasinHeritage EstatesOak Orchard EstatesWest Gaines
Gone or out of use
School Number 1schoolSchool Number 11schoolSchool Number 11schoolSchool Number 12schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 6schoolSchool Number 8school
6cemeteries and burying grounds inside Gaines
GainesLong BridgeOak OrchardOtter CreekStandishUnion
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Gaines’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Gaines’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Gaines, census by census
Lost a third of its people between 1850 and 1940, then more than doubled.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Gaines’ Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Gaines in 1871
Passages that mention Gaines, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York1871 · page 259Read the page →
Read the text
Henry Drake was born in New Jersey, April 6tli, 1770. He settled in Gaines in March, 1811. In 1812, he built a dam on Otter Creek, a few rods north of the Ridge, in Gaines, on which he erected a sawmill, which was the first sawmill built within the present town of Gaines.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York1871 · page 262Read the page →
Read the text
with his father to Ledyard, Cayuga county, and in March 1812, he settled northwest of what is called Long Bridge, and took up the southwest section of land now in the town of Gaines. He was the first settler in this locality south of the Ridge, and founder of what was for many years, known as "Freeman Settlement."
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
Gaines, 1816 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1816Post officeThe Gaines post office opens
- 1832BuiltGaines District No. 2 Cobblestone Schoolhouse is built
- 1832Post officeThe West Gaines post office opens
- 1833Post officeThe Eagle Harbor post office opens
- 1834
BuiltCobblestone Historic District is built - 1844
BuiltBacon-Harding Farm is built - 1859Post officeThe West Gaines post office closes
- 1861Born hereFrank Haak Lattin is born here
- 1875
In the archiveGaines (Village); Waterport (Village); Barre Center (Village); Barre Business Notices.; T… - 1897
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 20th century
- 1907Post officeThe Gaines post office closes
- 1993LandmarkCobblestone Historic District named a National Historic Landmark
- 21st century
- 2000CensusPopulation peaks at 3,740
By decade
Gaines, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1875
2010
2000On the map
Gaines on the map, 1897 to 1951
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Gaines. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1897Oak Orchard sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Gaines.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewGaines (Village); Waterport (Village); Barre Center (Village); Barre Business Notices.; Town of Albion Business Notices…, 1875
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Gaines’ page.
Retake this view · +15On the National Register
5 listings protect 39 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
places listed
5
National Historic Landmark
1
Cobblestone Historic District
historic buildings protected
39
each building in a district counts
first listed
1993
Cobblestone Historic District
BuildingsDistricts★ landmark
Architectural styles listings
Cobblestone1
Greek Revival1
★ LandmarkCobblestone Historic DistrictCobblestone · Built 1834
Tousley-Church HouseGreek Revival
Bacon-Harding FarmBuilt 1844
All 5 listings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Gaines’ history
What year was Gaines founded?
The Gaines post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Gaines rank for history?
Gaines is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #225 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 Gaines?
5 listings: 2 buildings and 3 historic districts, the Cobblestone Historic District, the Bacon-Harding Farm and the Childs Historic District, with 37 contributing buildings. 39 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Gaines?
28% of Gaines’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1975.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.