Founding year: the first Montour Falls post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Montour Falls’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Montour Falls is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Montour Falls’ 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 Montour Falls’ 149 sits above most of its state (80% of New York towns have fewer) while its 26 historic buildings outnumber those of 81% 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 (±8.4 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 Montour Falls’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Montour Falls. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1898Watkins Glen 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 Montour Falls.
Every building
Montour Falls, building by building, 1897–1914
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 modern day Village of Montour Falls is developed on the site of a former Seneca village, Queanettquaga, informally known as Catherine's Town after a prominent Seneca resident and leader, Catherine Montour. Montour's father, Peter Quebec, was a Mohawk Chief, and her mother (Margaret Montour Hunter) the daughter of an Oneida Chief. She married Seneca Indian Chief Thomas Htitson. Catherine Montour's Seneca Tribe was a member of the Iroquois Confederacy. During America's War of Independence reprisals were sanctioned against tribes of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy who had allied themselves with Great Britain. The infamous nearby Battle of Newtown (August 1779) and the march that devastated Queanettquaga (and forty other American Indian villages of the Finger Lakes) is known as the Sullivan–Clinton Expedition. In addition to burning Montour's log palace, orchards were cut down, homes dest…
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.
The Montour Falls post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Montour Falls rank for history?
Montour Falls is more historic than 82% 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 Montour Falls?
39% of Montour Falls’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1963.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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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