Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns · #639 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1820.
The Kent post office opened in 1818, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Milltown (1826), Farmers Mills (1841) and Ludingtonville (1854), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kent is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #639 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Kent’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.
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.
Kent had its own post office from 1818 to 1872. Five 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kent’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1830 and 1920, then grew more than tenfold.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kent’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Kent.
Kent was part of the Highland Patent of 1697 today known as the Philipse Patent), when it was still populated by the Wappinger tribe. Daniel Nimham (1724–1778) was the last chief of the Wappingers and was the most prominent Native American of his time in the Hudson Valley.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kent, cut from the printed page as they were published.
In the year 1828 most of the towns throughout the state had three or more school houses, most of which had been built by ■subscription. Of the towns in Washington and Kent counties. West Greenwich had two school houses, Richmond two, North Kingstown the Elam Academy and one school house besides, Exeter three school houses. East Greenwich an academy and in
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
THE town of East Greenwich is situated upon the western shore of the Narragansett bay, and is the shire town of Kent county. It is bounded north by Warwick, east by the Narragansett bay, south by North Kingstown, and west by West Greenwich. The surface is somewhat uneven, and in some sections a little rough and stony. Much of the scenery is picturesque and beautiful, and some of the views are of imposing beauty. The soil is comparatively fertile, and yields a.ll agricul-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
so many honorable men, including the President of the Constitutional Convention of Maryland in 1774, arrived about 1655. They came from Snodland, in Kent. They took up many tracts, including ''Tilghman-and-Foxley Grove," upon which Chestertown was subsequently founded, then held, through an intermarriage, by the Wilmers of Kent. Miss Tilghman, the original patentee of Chestertown, received
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
It was a beautiful mild summer morning that I left London and ran down to Tunbridge Wells. The Wells is, as you know, a famous English watering place in the heart of Kent, surrounded by the most interesting and delightful country, including the famous High Rocks, Bell Rock, etc. After drinking of the waters, or as my cabby would say, "Taking the waters," I drove over to Pembury, a distance of three or four miles on the old
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 hereEdwin Mortimer Hopkins is born here
In the archivePlate 72- Town of Kent, Putnam Co. N.Y
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveFrederick Ludington home2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kent. 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 Kent.
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 Kent’s page.
Retake this view · +15Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Kent post office opened in 1818, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kent is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #639 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.
18% of Kent’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1961.
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 (9), 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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