Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns · #397 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Most of Hyde Park was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1971. 25 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Top Cottage, a National Historic Landmark, and six historic districts with 302 buildings between them. Below: 27 old photos and papers, maps from 1898 on, and the census since 1830.
The Hyde Park post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Crum Elbow (1839), East Park (1874) and Campton (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hyde Park is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #397 of 758 in New York. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Hyde Park’s 155 sits above most of its state (80% of New York towns have fewer) while its 330 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% 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. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
6 decades in the archive, from the 1820s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1891Franklin D. Roosevelt and Fraulein Riensberg in
1891Franklin D. Roosevelt and James Roosevelt in
1891Franklin D. Roosevelt and his father in
1891Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, and Sara Dela…
1891Franklin D. Roosevelt, James Roosevelt, and Sara Dela…
1897Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyman Delano, and Taddy Roosev…
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with Monk in
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with dog, Monk, and his mother …
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with dog, Monk, and his mother …
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with dog, Monk, in
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with dog, Monk, in
1898Franklin D. Roosevelt with two dogs in
1899Franklin D. Roosevelt and his father inFrom Wikipedia’s history of Hyde Park.
Settlement of the region by Europeans officially began around 1742 but may have begun as early as 1710.
The name of the area was changed to "Hyde Park" around 1810. Previously, it was part of the Fauconnier Patent and was named "Stoutenburgh", after the town's first settler, Jacobus Stoughtenburg. Part of the town was from the Great Nine Partners Patent of 1697.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Hyde Park, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Various classes are to be found in Hyde Park. For instance, the elite drive on summer afternoons from five to seven, when four or five rows of motors and carriages moving along at crawling pace is quite a common sight. The fashionable drive used to be from Hyde Park Corner to Knightsbridge Barracks, but every few years fashions change, and during the last two seasons far more carriages were
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
From Albion Street, westwards and northwards, there were open market gardens. Hyde Park Gardens and Square, Oxford and Cambridge Squares, Gloucester and Sussex Squares were just beginning to emerge, and I have played cricket on the site of Westbourne Terrace. At that time a long brick wall ran along the north side of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens beside the Bayswater
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereJames Roosevelt is born here
In the archiveMaritje Kill 1829
In the archiveView from Hydepark to Hudson River New York
In the archiveRhinecliff (Village); Staatsburgh (Village); Hyde Park (Village)
In the archiveFranklin D. Roosevelt inIn the archiveFranklin D. Roosevelt and Fraulein Riensberg in
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveFranklin D. Roosevelt and his Aunt Dora D. Forbes inBuiltVanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site is built
BuiltUS Post Office-Hyde Park is builtBuiltHome of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site is built
Born hereJoan Slonczewski is born hereEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hyde Park. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hyde Park.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hyde Park’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 2,364 and 21,571 people in every census since 1830.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hyde Park’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Hyde Park’s post office has been open since 1812. Four 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).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Hyde Park post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Hyde Park is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #397 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.
25 listings: 19 buildings, among them the Top Cottage (a National Historic Landmark since 1997), and 6 historic districts with 302 contributing buildings. 330 historic buildings in all.
10% of Hyde Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (27), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (25), 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.
1854
c. 1859
1876
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