Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1827.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Harrison’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Harrison is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #384 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Harrison’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 Harrison’s 1.3 sits below most of its state (23% of New York towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.7 points). Two sources give 1696.
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 →
What stands out about Harrison’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
Harrison was established in 1696 by a patent granted by the British government to John Harrison and three others, who had a year earlier bargained with local Native Americans to purchase an area of land above Westchester Path, an old trail that led from Manhattan to Port Chester and below Rye Lake. Local custom holds that Harrison was given 24 hours to ride his horse around the area he could claim, and the horse could not swim or did not want to get its feet wet, but this is folklore. In fact, the land below Westchester Path and along Long Island Sound had already been purchased and partly developed by the settlers of Rye, New York.
Passages that mention Harrison, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Centennial history of Harrison, Maine1909 · page 37Read the page →
Read the text
The Act to incorporate the town of Harrison is found in the laws of Massachusetts, Chapter XXXIV, 1805, and is entitled : "An Act to incorporate the northwesterly part of the town of Otisfield, and the easterly part of the town of Bridgton, in the County of Cumberland, into a separate town by the name of Harrison."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Centennial history of Harrison, Maine1909 · page 133Read the page →
Read the text
lature : "To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Maine in Legislature assembled : — The undersigned, legal voters of the Town of Harrison, beg leave to remonstrate against the petition of Ira Crocker and others praying for the incorporation of a new town to include a part of the towns of Bridgton and Harrison, as far forth as the same, if granted, would affect the Town of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical collections of Harrison County, in the state of Ohio, with lists of the first land-owners, early marriages (to 1841), will records (to 1861), burial records of the early settlements, and numerous genealogies1900 · page 44Read the page →
Read the text
memoration of the admission of the State into the Union; and the year 190-i will witness the hundreth anniversary of the laying out of the town of Cadiz. The Centennial of the settlement of Harrison county would nominally be about 1900, — 1800 being the year !n which the land office was opened at Steubenville for the sale of lands in the territory now included in Harrison. The records of that office dur'ng the five years followiug that date show, among others, entries of land titles in what is now Harrison county by the following named settlers:
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.
On the map
Harrison on the map, 1944 to 1971
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harrison. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1944Glenville sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Harrison.
Every building
Harrison, building by building, 1911
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 sheet.
In 1696, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Harrison’s post office opened in 1827, and the census of 1980 counted 23,046 people here.
How does Harrison rank for history?
Harrison is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #384 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.
How old are the homes in Harrison?
20% of Harrison’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1962.
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 (12), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
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