Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns · #252 of 758 in New York. What drives it
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 2 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1896 on, and the census since 1840.
More historic than 91% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mohawk is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #252 of 758 in New York. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Mohawk’s 22.5 sits near the middle of its state (58% of New York towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mohawk’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mohawk. 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 Mohawk.
Another post office, Caughnawaga, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Mohawk.
Jesuit missionaries entered the region from Quebec around 1642 to work among the Mohawk people. The principal village of the Mohawk was Caughnawaga, which was later developed as the site of Fonda.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Mohawk, cut from the printed page as they were published.
colonists, and of that splendid colonial French empire, already struck from the French crown, and which had cost so much of blood and treasure to establish and uphold. Between 1790 and 1796, he built the first bridge across the Mohawk river, at Little Falls, the old red grist mill at that place, the first bridge over the gulf, east of the academy, mills for Richard Van Home, at Van Hornesville. and for Col. Freye, at Canajoharie, a bridge over the West Canada creek, and the court house and jail, which were burned up in 1833 or 1834, a bridge across the Mohawk river, at Fort Plain, and a bridge
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
west bank of the river, at Schenectady. I need not say, perhaps, for the information of any inhabitant of the county, that the Erie canal traverses its territory, from west to east, on the south side of the Mohawk river, passing through the villages of Frankfort, Ilion, Mohawk and the town of Danube ; nor that the New York central rail road traverses the county from east to west, on the north side of the river, passing through the town of Manheim, the villages of Little
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1788 the country north of the Mohawk River was known as the town of Caughnawaga, and south of the river as the town of Mohawk.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Oriskany 439 Mohawk River rises just over the border of Lewis County in the town of Lewis and under the shadow of Mohawk Hill. Although flowing in a southerly direction until it reaches the vicinity of Rome, like many a mountain stream with its numerous curves it seems to flow in the direction of every point of the compass. West of Rome is a small stream running parallel with the Mohawk called Wood Creek, distant
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. 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 Mohawk’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.
Between 2,112 and 3,976 people in every census since 1840.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mohawk’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Mohawk itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Mohawk is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns, #252 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.
Three places: the Walter Butler Homestead (listed 1976), the Old Courthouse Complex (1982) and the Danascara Place (2019).
35% of Mohawk’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, 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.
2013
2013