Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1811.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Massena’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Massena is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #578 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Massena’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 Massena’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 A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.8 points). Two sources give 1792.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Massena’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Harrigate SchoolschoolLincoln SchoolschoolSchool Number 10schoolSchool Number 12schoolSchool Number 13schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 6schoolSchool Number 8schoolSunset Drive-InlocaleTracy LandinglocaleWashington Schoolschool
10cemeteries and burying grounds inside Massena
Adath IsraelCalvaryDodgeMassena CenterMillerNevinsPine GroveReedSaint Peter's Roman CatholicWest Orvis Street
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Massena’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Massena’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Massena was established in 1792 by Anable Faucher. The settlement was initially called Nikentsiake by the Mohawk Indians, translating to "where the fish live." Massena was one of the first towns settled in St. Lawrence county, but was not incorporated until 1802 when it was formed from the town of Lisbon. The town and its village are named after André Masséna, a general and Marshal to Napoleon during the Napoleonic Wars.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Massena. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1906Massena sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Massena.
Every building
Massena, building by building, 1895–1918
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.
1895Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewEisenhower Lock in the St. Lawrence Seaway, 1930
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Massena’s page.
In 1792, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Massena’s post office opened in 1811, and the census of 1820 counted 944 people here.
How does Massena rank for history?
Massena is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #578 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 Massena?
26% of Massena’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1954.
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 (5), the Library of Congress (1), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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