Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns · #344 of 758 in New York. What drives it
29 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Morrill Hall, Cornell University, a National Historic Landmark, and four historic districts with 322 buildings between them. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1870.
Ithaca dates its founding to 1888 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ithaca is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #344 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age 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 Ithaca’s 105 sits above most of its state (76% of New York towns have fewer) while its 345 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
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.
1888Sheet 1 of 14Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ithaca.
Native Americans lived in this area for thousands of years. When reached by Europeans, this area was controlled by the Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ), one of the five tribes comprising the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee). Jesuit missionaries from New France in present-day Quebec had a mission to convert the Cayuga as early as 1657.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Ithaca, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The town of Ithaca as a separate organization has come down from the original town of Ulysses, through the following changes : Ithaca was formed from Ulysses, which was erected as one of the original towns of Onondaga county, March 5, 1794. Its history is traced as Ulysses, Onondaga county, from March 5, 1794; as Ulysses, Cayuga county, from March 8, 1799; as Ulysses, Seneca county, from March 39, 1804; as Ulysses, Tompkins county, from April 17, 1817; and as Ithaca, Tompkins county, from March 10, 1821.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
zens of Ovid, and an adequate endowment thereby secured for the college in some other proper locality. Therefore, I submit for your consideration, the following proi^osition. If you will locate the college at Ithaca, I will give you for that object a farm of three hundred acres of first quality of land, desirably located, overlooking the village of Ithaca and Cayuga Lake, and withui ten minutes' walk of the Cornell Library, the churches, the railroad station and st(;amboat landing. I will also erect on the farm suitable buildings for the use of the college, and give an additional sum of money to make up in the aggre-
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.
BuiltClinton House is built
In the archiveGeneral view of Ithaca, Cayuga Lake in the distanceBuiltMorrill Hall, Cornell University is builtBuiltAndrew Dickson White House is built
In the archiveIthaca FallsBuiltLehigh Valley Railroad Station is built
In the archiveIthaca Falls
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereAlex Haley is born here
Born hereMargaret Geller is born here
Born hereSusan Kare is born here
Born hereDavid Foster Wallace is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ithaca. 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 Ithaca.
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 Ithaca’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 8,462 people in 1870 to 32,108 in 2020, 3 times over.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ithaca’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Another post office, Fall Creek, 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.
In 1888, according to Wikidata. Ithaca’s post office opened in 1821, and the census of 1870 counted 8,462 people here.
Ithaca is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #344 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.
29 listings: 24 buildings, among them the Morrill Hall, Cornell University (a National Historic Landmark since 1965), 4 historic districts with 322 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 345 historic buildings in all.
43% of Ithaca’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 1956.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (7), the National Register of Historic Places (29), 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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