Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
8 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1895 on, and the census since 1880.
Lacona dates its founding to 1803 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
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 Lacona’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lacona. 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 Lacona.
The 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lacona.
The village was founded around 1803. Lacona was incorporated as a village in 1880.
The Smith H. Barlow House, First National Bank of Lacona, Lacona Clock Tower, Lacona Railroad Station and Depot, Charles M. Salisbury House, Matthew Shoecraft House, Fred Smart House, and Newman Tuttle House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lacona, cut from the printed page as they were published.
river into Oswego County, at Fort Brewerton, passing thence through the towns of Hastings, Parish, Mexico, and Richland, and connecting with the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburgh road at Lacona, in the town of Sandy Creek. It was finished in the fall of 1871, by the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburgh company.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveThe family of Gottlieb Zahler in their new farmOne decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. 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 Lacona’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 333 and 657 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lacona’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Lacona itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
In 1803, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Lacona’s post office opened in 1870, and the census of 1880 counted 378 people here.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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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1941
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2017