Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
The Greenwich post office opened in 1808, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, Whipple City (1807), North Greenwich (1826) and Battenville (1828), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Greenwich is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #66 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.
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 Greenwich’s 359 sits above most of its state (88% of New York towns have fewer) while its 174 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% 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 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.
Greenwich’s post office has been open since 1808. Six other post offices 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Greenwich’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Greenwich yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1808. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 4,942 in 2010, 4,868 in 2020.
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 SurveyThe U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Greenwich.
1986Glens Falls sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Greenwich.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Nobody well known was born in Greenwich itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Greenwich post office opened in 1808, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Greenwich is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #66 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings and 1 historic district, the Village of Greenwich Historic District, with 165 contributing buildings. 174 historic buildings in all.
48% of Greenwich’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1949.
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 (1), the National Register of Historic Places (6), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2021