Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 77% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Ceres School and the Little Genesee Schoolhouse-Genesee District No. 1 School. Its Register listings are the Ceres School and the Little Genesee Schoolhouse-Genesee District No. 1 School. Below: maps from 1939 on and the census since 1830.
Genesee dates its founding to 1830 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1830.
More historic than 77% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Genesee is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age 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 Genesee’s 13.4 sits near the middle of its state (51% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Genesee’s history is told.
Another post office, West Genesee, 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Genesee.
The first settler arrived circa 1823. The town of Genesee was established in 1830 from a division of the town of Cuba.
Much of the early economy was based on harvesting the forests, but oil production began in approximately 1890.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Genesee, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of Genesee was set off from Cuba April 16, 1830. The first settler in the town was John Bell, who came to Ceres in 1817. The second settler was Newman Crabtree. Jabez Bur¬ dick, Roswell Streeter, Ezekiel Crandall and Joseph Wells also came into the town at an early day.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
of Grand Blanc township. Flint was formed in the spring of the latter year, and from that time until early in 1838, this township was under the jurisdiction of Flint In the year last mentioned the townships of Genesee and Flushing were erected. By the act of their formation the east half of surveyed township No. 8 north, of range No. 6 east, was assigned to. the township of Genesee, while the west half was included within that of Flushing. This condition of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The "Genesee County Plank-Road Company" was incorporated by act approved April 3, 1848, with power " to lay out, establish, and construct a plank-road and all necessary buildings from the village of Flint to the south. line of the township of Grand Blanc, on the Saginaw road, in the county of Genesee, with the privilege of uniting at any point with the road of any other company." The capital stock was placed at twenty-five thousand dollars, and the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
William Hincher, a participant in Shay’s Rebellion, for which he was forced to leave Massachusetts, came to the Genesee Country in August, 1791, and settled at Long Pond, where he built the first house on the shore of Lake Ontario between the Genesee and Niagara rivers. The settlement of Charlottesburg, or Charlotte, came within a tract of land at the mouth of the Genesee sold by Phelps and Gorham to Joseph Smith soon after 1789. Smith sold the tract to James Latta for $175 and Latta’s deed, recorded at
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Genesee. 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 Genesee.
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.
Between 219 and 1,803 people in every census since 1830.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Genesee’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1830, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Genesee’s post office opened in 1828, and the census of 1830 counted 219 people here.
Genesee is more historic than 77% 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.
Two places: the Ceres School (listed 2010) and the Little Genesee Schoolhouse-Genesee District No. 1 School (2025).
19% of Genesee’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (2), 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.
