Founding year: the first Gowanda post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Gowanda’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Gowanda is more historic than 93% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Gowanda’s overall grade.
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 Gowanda’s 29.8 sits near the middle of its state (61% of New York towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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 (±7.3 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 Gowanda’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The area was first inhabited during the Stone Age by nomadic Algonquian peoples. An Algonquian earthwork mound from the first or second Stone Age is located on a farm in the area of Rosenberg along Zoar Valley near Gowanda. The mound is believed to be about 3,500 years old. Artifacts including spearheads, copper heads, and stone implements of a crude nature have been excavated from the site. In the latter half of the 14th century, Iroquoian-speaking peoples traveled to the area and lived along Cattaraugus Creek. They were proud, considering themselves to be "chosen people". Other tribes lived in the area around this time. The powerful nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy (Iroquois) defeated the Erie people (also an Iroquoian-speaking tribe), driving them out of the area or assimilating captives by adoption in certain clans. About this time, the Five Nations of the Confederacy coales…
Passages that mention Gowanda, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical and biographical history of the township of Dayton, Cattaraugus County, New York1901 · page 270Read the page →
Read the text
than that of local character. A\^as president of the village of Gowanda for three terms, and is now serving his third term as supervisor of the town of Persia, which includes a part of the village of Gowanda. He was married .June 21, 1882, to Emma M. Schaack of Gowanda. They have one child, John, born November 2, 1 892.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical and biographical history of the township of Dayton, Cattaraugus County, New York1901 · page 39Read the page →
Read the text
RESOLVED, That the free road which the people of Gowanda are constructing to give that village and the north part of Erie County, more convenient access to the railroad, shall be continued in the same liberal spirit, from the Depot, through the town of Dayton and the southeast part of Villenova, by the way of the Nickerson farm to Cherry Creek, and that Dayton will join with Villenova and Cherry Creek in constructing the same.
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.
By decade
Gowanda, decade by decade
4 decades in the archive, from the 1800s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Gowanda post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Gowanda rank for history?
Gowanda is more historic than 93% 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.
How old are the homes in Gowanda?
57% of Gowanda’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (11), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.
1880
1880
2014
2014
2014
2012
2012
2012
