Founding year: Wikidata; Wikipedia’s history section gives the same year. First post office: 1806.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Hornellsville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hornellsville is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #565 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Hornellsville’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 Hornellsville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.4 points). Two sources give 1790.
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 Hornellsville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1920, then more than doubled.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hornellsville’s Wikipedia page.
Places that used to be
Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Hamlets and corners on the map
ArkportGreen Acres Mobile Home ParkHornell Mobile Home Park - Edgeview EstatesNorth HornellPine Knoll Mobile Home ParkSouth HornellWebbs Crossing
Gone or out of use
Bethesda Community HospitalhospitalBethesda HospitalhospitalCrosby SchoolschoolMeeks SchoolschoolRidge SchoolschoolStarlite Drive-InlocaleTurnpike Schoolschool
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Hornellsville
ArkportEast Pennsylvania HillNicholsonRuralWest Pennsylvania Hill
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
On the map
Hornellsville on the map, 1915 to 1978
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hornellsville. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1915Hornell sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hornellsville.
The town was first settled circa 1790 in the vicinity of the modern city of Hornell.
The Town of Hornellsville was created in 1820 from part of the Town of Canisteo. Territory from Hornellsville was used to form the Towns of Hartsville (1844) and part of Fremont (1854).
In 1852, the community of Hornellsville became the incorporated Village of Hornellsville and in 1888 became the City of Hornellsville. It changed its name to the City of Hornell in 1906. The City of Hornell is surrounded by the Town of Hornellsville.
Passages that mention Hornellsville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 336Read the page →
Read the text
In 1873 the village of Hornellsville had so increased in population that the existing school law was found to be insufficient to meet the needs of the people and to give more authority to the school authorities. To meet the requirements a bill was drafted by the then trustees of the district to encourage education' in the village of Hornellsville and was introduced in the legislature by Hon.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Steuben County, New York, and its people1911 · page 194Read the page →
Read the text
The Presbyterians established a church in the town, now city, of Corning in 1810; in the town of "Wheeler, the same year; in the town of Urbana, 1831 ; in the town of Hornellsville, 1832, and town of Erwin, 1835. Catholic Institutions.
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
Hornellsville, 1790 to 1915
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 and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Hornellsville’s post office opened in 1806, and the census of 1830 counted 1,364 people here.
How does Hornellsville rank for history?
Hornellsville is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #565 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 Hornellsville?
29% of Hornellsville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1960.
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 (6), 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.
1873
Date?
2019