Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers
How Kendall began
When was Kendall founded?
1837
The Kendall post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, North Murray (1831), Kendall Mills (1847) and West Kendall (1850), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,692 in 18402020 census: 2,617189 years
How historic is Kendall?
B+
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Kendall post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Kendall’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kendall is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #527 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 Kendall’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 Kendall’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 (±9.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Kendall’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town was part of the Connecticut Tract, also called the 100,000 Acre Tract.
The first settlers arrived circa 1812. The Erie Canal opened in 1825, making a ready market for wheat and lumber. It also made the way easier for more settlement. The first Norwegian immigrant community in the United States was begun at the Kendall Settlement in 1825. They settled in a body along the lakeshore in the northeast part of town. Norwegian-American pioneer leader Cleng Peerson subsequently founded a settlement in the Fox River Valley of Illinois during 1834, near the community of Norway, Illinois.
Passages that mention Kendall, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York1871 · page 152Read the page →
Read the text
Mr. T. W. Allis, above referred to, was for many years one of the solid men of the town of Kendall, Honored and respected by all who knew him. He was a Justice of the Peace and held various other town offices. Having acquired a competency, by many years' steady toil and economy, he retired from hard labor on a farm, to a village residence, where he is now (1871) spending a quiet old age, in the enjoy-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Pioneer history of Orleans County, New York1871 · page 271Read the page →
Read the text
When Mr. Bates settled in Kendall there was no puhlic highway in town. Settlers and others comingthere usually left the Ridge a little east of Kendall and traveled a road which had been opened into what is now Hamlin ; thence west to Kendall. The first highway leading south from ^Kendall to the Ridge, was located and cut out by the early inhabitants without any public authority, from Kendall Mills following
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
Kendall, 1821 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Kendall post office opened in 1837, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Kendall rank for history?
Kendall is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #527 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 Kendall?
37% of Kendall’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.6 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.
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