Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Lenox District No. 4 Schoolhouse. Below: old-book passages.
More historic than 68% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lincoln is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Lincoln’s 5.7 sits near the middle of its state (37% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
Six 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lincoln’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lincoln.
The town was established in 1896 from a division of the town of Lenox. The Klock family were early settlers.
The former Lenox District No. 4 Schoolhouse houses the Lincoln town hall. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lincoln, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Wood, Fernando, M. C. : advice to Lincoln about Vallandigham, VII, 359, 360; letters to Lincoln about peace, 366 ; letters to Seward explaining his speech, 367 letter to Lincoln about ananesty, 367 rejoinder to Lincoln's reply, 368, 369 House resolution to appoint peace commissioners, 394, 395.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Lincoln itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Lincoln is more historic than 68% of U.S. towns. 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.
One place: the Lenox District No. 4 Schoolhouse (listed 1996).
24% of Lincoln’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
