Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #406 of 758 in New York. What drives it
2 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 7 buildings. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1901 on, and the census since 1850.
The Maine post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, East Maine (1849), New Ireland (1894) and Tiona (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Maine is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #406 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 Maine’s 15.7 sits near the middle of its state (52% of New York towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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.
Maine’s post office has been open since 1828. Three 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).
Lost a third of its people between 1880 and 1920, then grew 3-fold.
17 censuses, 1850–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Maine’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Maine. 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 Maine.
From Wikipedia’s history of Maine.
The area was first settled in 1794. The town of Maine was formed from the northern part of the town of Union in 1848.
The Maine Central School (also known as J. Ralph Ingals School) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998. The Cyrus Gates Farmstead was listed in 1999.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Maine, cut from the printed page as they were published.
south by Benton and west by Fairfield. The surface of the town is rolling, crossed by several small streams, and is altogether an ideal farming district. The soil is a clay loam, yielding rich and abundant crops of hay. The trunk line of the Maine Central railroad runs through the southeastern portion of the town, having a station at Clinton village, where most of the present manufacturing industries — including saw mills, a grist mill, carding mill, tannery, door and sash factory and a boot and shoe factory— are located. Pishon's Ferry, on
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
SIDXEY, formerly that part of Vassalboro lyingwest of the Kennebec river, was named after Sir Philip Sidney, and incorporated January 30, 1792 — the seventy-.sixth town in the province of Maine. No equal area of Kennebec county was settled, or enjoyed the benefits of township any earlier, or possessed superior attractions for settlement. After inspecting the adjacent sections on either side, an observer must have been agreeably impressed, then as now, with its comparatively level surface and the infrequency of rugged hills
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
body at Princeton, began the study of medicine in September, 1861, with Drs. Job Holmes and Charles E. Swan, of Calais. He attended the medical lectures at the Maine Medical School in 1862, Plarvard in 1863 and Maine in 1864, graduating from the Maine school August 3, 1864. After practicing in Gorham, Maine, from March, 1865, to February, 1869,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Sundry Post-offices in the District of Maine, being possessed by, or under the control of, the public enemy, and it being possible that others may be in the same situation, it is hereby ordered, that the Post Master (at the nearest safe Post-office to those offices so possessed or controlled by the enemy) detain, open and account for the mails addressed to them, in the same manner as if addressed to his own office. Whenever it shall become safe to forward
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.
BuiltCyrus Gates Farmstead is built
Born hereFrederick Taylor Gates is born here
Born hereStuart Weller is born here
In the archiveMap of Maine Township
In the archiveBenjamin S. Van Deusen (1873-1937) and Lynette Mae Curlhair (1872-1942) in Maine, Broome …
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveFreeman C. Curlhair (1837-1910) estate in the Press and Sun-Bulletin of Binghamton, New Y…
In the archiveCyrus Gates House, Old Nanticoke Road, Maine vicinity (Broome County, New York)4 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1960s. 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 Maine’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
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 Maine post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Maine is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #406 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.
Two places: the Maine Central School (listed 1998) and the Cyrus Gates Farmstead (1999).
20% of Maine’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±12.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1964.
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 (8), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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 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.
1876
1876
1876
1910