Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns · #455 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Sternbergh House, the New Scotland Avenue (Troop B) Armory and the Knox District School No. 5. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1830.
The Knox post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, West Township (1851) and West Berne (1863), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Knox is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #455 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Knox’s 15.6 sits near the middle of its state (52% of New York towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Knox’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1830 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Knox’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Knox. 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 Knox.
From Wikipedia’s history of Knox.
The Town of Knox was established in 1822 from part of the Town of Berne. During the American Revolution, loyalties of the inhabitants were split, but the issue was resolved when Tories moved away.
The Knox District School No. 5 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Knox, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Knox is said to have been located contains about eighty-five acres and was owned at one time by Captain Touisant Dubois, who sold it to the United States government for the purpose of a garrison, and it is frequently referred to today as the "garrison tract." The place, like many other localities of a hilly nature, in different parts of Knox county, was used by the Indians as burial grounds before the white man came into possession of it, and there are many stories relative to pots of gold having been buried there and subsequently recovered by persons who made noc-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1838 he came west and entered laud in Knox co , and in 1840 settled on sec. 82, Orange township, where he now lives. He helped to burn the brick to build the first school-house erected in Orange township. When the winter of 1843 had draped the last days of the dying year in their white grave clothes, Mr. T. be-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
H., on seeing a notice of a railroad meeting, in the Journal of December 12, 1849. It so beautifully and graphically pictures the grandeur, the magnificence and splendor of the vast prairies of Knox county as they were when cultivated by nature's hand, and being prepared especially for that excellent pioneer paper, and as it also refers to the building of the first railroad over the fertile prairies of Knox, we deem it well to give it in full. It is entitled RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WEST.
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 archiveKnoxville Business Directory; Knoxville (Village); Knox (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveKnox, New York 150th anniversary commemorative piece2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Knox’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Knox itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Knox’s post office has been open since 1823. 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Knox post office opened in 1823, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Knox is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #455 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.
Three places: the Sternbergh House (listed 1985), the New Scotland Avenue (Troop B) Armory (1994) and the Knox District School No. 5 (2005).
17% of Knox’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1982.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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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