The Lee post office opened in 1822, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Stokes (1825), West Branch (1833) and Point Rock (1875), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 2,186 in 18202020 census: 6,171204 years
How historic is Lee?
B−
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Lee post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Lee’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lee is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #655 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Lee’s overall grade.
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 Lee’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.0 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Lee’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Lee had its own post office from 1822 to 1905. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Lee
1822–1905
Stokes
1825–1935
West Branch
1833–1967
Lee Centre
1849–today
Point Rock
1875–1936
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BrookfieldEvergreen Hills Mobile Home CommunityHawkins CornerLake DeltaLee CenterLil Fair Mobile Home ParkPoint RockStokes CornerStoneybrook Mobile TerraceWest BranchWest Lee
Gone or out of use
School Number 1schoolSchool Number 11schoolSchool Number 12schoolSchool Number 15schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 5schoolSchool Number 7schoolSchool Number 8schoolSchool Number 9school
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Lee
EamesEvergreenSmith
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Lee’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lee’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The Town of Lee was formed from the Town of Western in 1811. The town was named after Revolutionary War General Charles Lee.
About 1910, the Rome & Osceola Railroad was organized and the rails laid as far as Lee Center, with grading completed along much of the route, intended to carry timber from Tug Hill to a tie plant on a site which is now the Rite Aid warehouse on Rt 69 in Rome.
George W. Kingsbury, for whom (with his brother), the county of Kingsbury, South Dakota, is named, was born in Lee on December 16, 1837.
Passages that mention Lee, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Genealogical history of the Lee family of Virginia and Maryland from A.D. 1300 to A.D. 18661868Read the page →
Read the text
Robert Edward Lee was bom at Stratford, Westmoreland County, Va., on the 19th of January, a.d. 1807, in the same room in which two of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were born ; namely, Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee. He was the fifth child of Henry Lee, the celebrated " Light- Horse Harry " of the Revolution, and bears the name of his maternal uncles, Robert and Edward Carter of " Shirley," the family residence of the Carters. Robert Carter, full brother of
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.
Timeline
Lee, 1822 to 1990
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Lee post office opened in 1822, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Lee rank for history?
Lee is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #655 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.
How old are the homes in Lee?
16% of Lee’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.0 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 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.
