Founding year: the first Little Valley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Little Valley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Little Valley is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Little Valley’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 Little Valley’s 16.1 sits near the middle of its state (53% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.3 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 Little Valley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first white settlers arrived as early as 1808, however they vacated due to frontier warfare in the War of 1812; settlement resumed in 1816, after the war ended. The town of Little Valley was formed in 1818 by splitting the town of Perry, which at the time covered the entire western half of the county. The northwest quadrant of the county became Perrysburg, while the southwest quadrant became Little Valley (also known as the town of Elkdale); at the same time, the town of Great Valley was split off from Olean, and the two towns' proximity and comparable topography gave the towns their names. Little Valley was once an important rail station on the Erie Railroad and notable for its cheese and dairy industry. The location of the railroad resulted in moving the county seat to the village of Little Valley, which was also later connected to Salamanca by a streetcar line.
Passages that mention Little Valley, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical and biographical history of the township of Dayton, Cattaraugus County, New York1901 · page 267Read the page →
Read the text
1892, he went to Little Valley as principle of the school in that town. When he took charge of the school there it was a union school employing four teachers. In 1895 the school was admitted to the University of the state of New York, with the rank of senior grade; in 1897 it was raised to the rank of High School and employed seven teachers. On April 7, 1899, he resigned his position as principal of that school to accept the appointment of School Commissioner of the newly created Third Commissioner District of Cattaraugus County. In November 1899, he was elected to the same oflice, which he
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical and biographical history of the township of Dayton, Cattaraugus County, New York1901 · page 274Read the page →
Read the text
the roughness of Eastern Kentucky deterred him from the contemplated purchase, and after a brief trip in Tennessee he returned to East Randolph and in July of '94 he went to Little Valley and founded the Sjjy. Altho" stared in the face of the financial panic of that period and on the heels of two former newspaper failures in that place, yet the paper was a success from start.
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
Little Valley, 1825 to 1986
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Little Valley.
1986Olean sheet · 1:100,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Little Valley.
Every building
Little Valley, building by building, 1900–1910
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.
The Little Valley post office opened in 1822, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Little Valley rank for history?
Little Valley is more historic than 89% 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.
How old are the homes in Little Valley?
51% of Little Valley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.3 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1938.
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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
