Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Pubdog · Public domainMore historic than 80% of U.S. towns · #428 of 758 in New York. What drives it
16 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 17 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1840.
The Lancaster post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Pavement (1892) and Dellwood (1908), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 80% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lancaster is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #428 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 Lancaster’s 8.4 sits near the middle of its state (43% of New York towns have fewer) while its 38 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% 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.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Lancaster’s post office has been open since 1833. 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).
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lancaster.
In 1803, the Holland Land Company sold its first plot of land in the future town. The town of Lancaster was formed from the town of Clarence in 1833. The town was named after Lancaster, Massachusetts, but the reason for applying this name is not known. Originally called "Cayuga Creek", the town later incorporated and obtained the current name.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lancaster, cut from the printed page as they were published.
of Lancaster, to Henry, eail of Lancaster, is directed to John de Lancaster, warden or keeper of the honor of Lancaster ; Geofrey de Werhurton, sheriff of Lancaster ; Edmund de Assheby, keeper of the fees of the honor of Lancaster ; and to the various other officers of tliat honor.* As if it had been intended to propitiate the manes of the deceased earl, a brief was issued fi-om York, to Robert de Weryington, clerk, enabling hhn to collect alms in various parts of the kingdom, to defray the cost of the erection of a cliapel, to be built on the site where Thomas, eai-1 of Lancaster, had been recently beheaded.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The bequests of John, duke of Lancaster, were numerous and munificent; but the largest portion of his estates descended to his only surviving son and heir by Blanch of Lancaster. Throughout his life, the duke of Lancaster surpassed all the great men of liis age in power and fortune; but he was not so universally respected as liis Henry of brother, the Black Prince, the good duke of Lancaster, or Ids eldest son, Henry of brokef Bolingbroko, eai'l of Derby. Some defects in the moral character of John of Gaunt, his haughty carnage towai-ds inferiors, and his public support of Wickliffe, the refonner, added to his want of success in arms, contributed to lower bun in the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Capt. Wadsworth, who was then stationed at Marlborough, hearing of the distress at Lancaster, hastened to their relief, and stationed his soldiers in the different garrison houses, for the protection of the people. They remained there about six weeks, and could not venture out night or day, without endangering their lives. Capt. Wadsworth lost one of his soldiers while thus quartered.
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 archiveEast Part of Lancaster (Village)
Born hereIron Davis is born here
Born hereDorothy Thompson is born here
In the archive51909.BB#001--H.J. Sheperds coal shed and scale--Lancaster, NY [1900.02.02]
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveChristian Freiderich Lindauer (1821-1916) in the Lancaster Enterprise of Lancaster, New Y…3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lancaster. 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 Lancaster.
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 Lancaster’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 2,083 people in 1840 to 45,106 in 2020, more than tenfold.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lancaster’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lancaster post office opened in 1833, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lancaster is more historic than 80% of U.S. towns, #428 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.
16 listings: 15 buildings, among them the US Post Office-Depew (listed 1988, the first), and 1 historic district, the Central Avenue Historic District, with 17 contributing buildings. 38 historic buildings in all.
18% of Lancaster’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (7), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (16), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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