Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns · #142 of 758 in New York. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Elihu Root House, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 203 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1830.
The Kirkland post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Franklin Iron Works (1867) and Chuckery (1894), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Kirkland is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #142 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
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 Kirkland’s 215 sits above most of its state (83% of New York towns have fewer) while its 210 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kirkland’s history is told.
Kirkland had its own post office from 1829 to 1941. Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Kirkland.
The first settlement occurred around 1787 near the present village of Clinton. The Town of Kirkland was established in 1827 from the Town of Paris. The land of the town belonged to the Kirkland Patent, Brothertown Patent, and Coxe Patent.
The Rev. Asahel Norton Homestead was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Kirkland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
undiscovered bed of ore lying near the surface within one mile of their own works, and with an abundance of it in the immediate vicinity." Passing southward into the town of Kirkland, we find it again on the farms of Messrs. Healey, Gunn, and Norton, from which beds much has already been drawn to the Franklin furnace.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
the school-house at the foot of I ollege Hill, passes through Mr. Harrington's saw-mill on the Oriskany, and thence runs up the southeastern slope to the south of Pans Hill, and so on to its termination in Bridgewater. See Map of the Town of Kirkland.
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.
In the archiveTown of Kirkland, Oneida Co., New York
In the archiveMap of the Town of Kirkland, New York, from 1874
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2023NY 922C eb at NY 233 and NY 412 (2), July 2023
2023NY 922C eb at NY 233 and NY 412 (1), July 2023
2023NY 12B sb in Franklin Springs, July 2023
2019Kirkland Town Library, in Clinton, New York
2019Kirkland Town Library, in Clinton, New York (cropped)
2019Kirkland Town Hall New York
2019Kirkland Art Center New York
2018NY12B South SignEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kirkland. 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 Kirkland.
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 Kirkland’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 2,509 and 10,334 people in every census since 1830.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kirkland’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Kirkland post office opened in 1829, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Kirkland is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #142 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Elihu Root House (a National Historic Landmark since 1972) and the Hamilton College Chapel (listed 1972, the first), and 1 historic district, the Clinton Village Historic District, with 203 contributing buildings. 210 historic buildings in all.
33% of Kirkland’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1964.
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, 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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