Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1823.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hornell’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hornell is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #259 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 National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hornell’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 Hornell’s 8.6 sits near the middle of its state (44% of New York towns have fewer) while its 7 listings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1790.
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 (±5.6 points).
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 Hornell’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
What is now Hornell was first settled in 1790 under the name "Upper Canisteo", to distinguish it from the community of Canisteo, then known as "Lower Canisteo". The family of Benjamin Crosby were the first settlers in what is now Hornell. The area was incorporated as a town in 1820, as "Hornellsville." The name comes from early settler George Hornell Jr, who built the first gristmill here.
The City of Hornell was chartered in 1888 as the "City of Hornellsville," (having been first organized as the "Village of Hornellsville" in 1852). The name was changed to Hornell in 1906.
Major flooding in 1936 put parts of the city under water, prompting the creation of a system of levees to prevent future serious flooding issues.
Peaked at 16,250 in 1930; 8,263 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hornell’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Hornell in 1911
Passages that mention Hornell, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 253Read the page →
Read the text
ben county in the town of Dansville, thence passed to the adjoining town of Wayland, turning to the south to avoid topographical obstructions its line is brought within ten miles of the city of Hornell. About this time the people of Hornellsville resolved, in view of the selfish and illiberal policy adopted by the Erie Railroad, to build a road to some point on the Lackawanna, in the town of Avoca, and for that purpose secured a charter for the Hornellsville and Cohocton Valley Railroad Company. They em-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 119Read the page →
Read the text
ville; but the land which they supposed they had bought and particularly desired was described as township 3, fifth range (now the town of Canisteo), and township 4, sixth range (now the city of Hornell and part of the town of Hornellsville). In September, 1790, Uriah Stevens, Sr., Arthur Erwin, Solomon Bennet and Joel Thomas went to Canandaigua to get a deed for the last named townships and to return and deliver the first deed.
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
Hornell, 1790 to 1968
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
In 1790, according to Wikidata. Hornell’s post office opened in 1823, and the census of 1870 counted 4,552 people here.
How does Hornell rank for history?
Hornell is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #259 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 Hornell?
7 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Hornell Public Library (listed 1975, the first).
How old are the homes in Hornell?
59% of Hornell’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 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 (14), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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, 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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1968
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