Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 84% of U.S. towns · #358 of 758 in New York. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1902 on and the census since 1820.
Milton dates its founding to 1772 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1820.
More historic than 84% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Milton is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #358 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 Milton’s 4.7 sits below most of its state (34% of New York towns have fewer) while its 9 historic buildings outnumber those of 75% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Milton had its own post office from 1803 to 1812. 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 Milton’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Milton. 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 Milton.
From Wikipedia’s history of Milton.
This region was part of the Kayaderossera patent of 1708. The town was first settled around 1772.
The town of Milton was established in 1792 from part of the town of Ballston. In 1793, part of the town was taken to form part of the town of Greenfield.
In 1807, part of Milton was lost when Ballston Spa became an incorporated village.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Milton, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The reader has by this time had enough perhaps of Milton speaking about himself. By way of variation he may like now to have a specimen of what other people were saying and publishing about Milton. Here, accordingly, is the opening or preface of a pamphlet, written wholly and specially against Milton, which was out in London only a week or two after that of Milton from which we have been quoting. The
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
There is, of course, plenty of reiterated abuse of Milton in the style of the opening Address to the Eeader. " Such carping poetasters as you," says the Confuter in one place, showing that he knew of Milton's pretensions to poetry.
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.
BuiltBrookside is built
Born hereWilliam Jay Youmans is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings 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.
Grew from 2,795 people in 1820 to 18,800 in 2020, 6 times over.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Milton’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1772, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Milton’s post office opened in 1797, and the census of 1820 counted 2,795 people here.
Milton is more historic than 84% of U.S. towns, #358 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.
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Brookside (listed 1975, the first). 9 historic buildings in all.
18% of Milton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1985.
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 (5), 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.
