Founding year: the first Mount Vernon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1892.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mount Vernon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Vernon is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #575 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mount Vernon’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 Mount Vernon’s 0.8 sits below most of its state (21% of New York towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% 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 (±2.7 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1892 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Mount Vernon’s 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 Mount Vernon. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1897Harlem 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 Mount Vernon.
Places that used to be
Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Mount Vernon’s post office has been open since 1851.
Hamlets and corners on the map
Chester Hill ParkElmsmereFleetwoodParksidePinckney HeightsSunny BraeVernon ParkWest Mount Vernon
Gone or out of use
Biltmore TheaterbuildingChurch of God in ChristchurchChurch of the Holy ComforterchurchCongregation Emanu-ElchurchEmbassy TheatrebuildingHoly Trinity ChurchchurchMcArthur CirclelocaleParkway TheaterbuildingSinai Templechurch
1cemetery inside Mount Vernon
Saint Pauls Protestant Episcopal
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Famous people
44 famous people were born in Mount Vernon
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Mount Vernon area was first settled in 1664 by families from Connecticut as part of the Town of Eastchester.
Mount Vernon became a village in 1853 and a city in 1892. Early development was driven by the New York Industrial Home Association No. 1, a home building cooperative organized to build homes for "tradesmen, employees, and other persons of small means".
Mount Vernon takes its name from George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia, much as neighboring Wakefield (in the Bronx) was named for the Virginia plantation where Washington was born.
Passages that mention Mount Vernon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Historical sketch of Ann Pamela Cunningham, "The Southern matron," founder of "The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association."1903 · page 27Read the page →
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letter to a young friend and relative acting as her temporary secretary, giving minute instructions to Miss Tracy and Mr. Herbert concerning the affairs of Mount Vernon and regarding the funds available for the running expenses of the place during the continuance of the war. She directed, in case of the occupation of the region around Mount Vernon by troops of either or both the Union and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Mount Vernon and its associations1859 · page 34Read the page →
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mere pleasures of the chase, now offered its attractions to the lad. Master Williams had taught him the mysteries of surveying, and the old Lord Fairfax, having observed his practice of the art at Mount Vernon, and his extreme care and accuracy, proposed to him to go to his broad possessions beyond the Blue Eidge, where lawless intruders were seated, and prepare his domain for settlement, by running boundary lines between large sections. Tlie lad gladly acceded to the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Historical sketch of Ann Pamela Cunningham, "The Southern matron," founder of "The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association."1903 · page 49Read the page →
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ance of the Association in the future, but it is remarkable for its lack of self -consciousness. Heartbroken as Miss Cunningham was in bidding a last farewell to Mount Vernon and her old tried friends, no word of this escapes her; no lamentation; but, self-forgetting, she is concerned only with the welfare of the Association she founded for the preservation of Washington's Mount Vernon, which she redeemed
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Mount Vernon and its associations1859 · page 300Read the page →
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The mansion at Mount Vernon was soon thoroughly repaired, and many ornaments and pieces of furniture, not known to it before, were placed in it. Whatever had been used in the presidential mansion at Philadelphia, and could be appropriately transferred to Mount Vernon, were reserved, when Washington broke up his establishment in the federal capital, and disposed of all superfluities.
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.
Timeline
Mount Vernon, 1850 to 1978
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
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 Mount Vernon post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1892.
How does Mount Vernon rank for history?
Mount Vernon is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #575 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.
What is on the National Register in Mount Vernon?
5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the St. Paul's Church National Historic Site (listed 1966, the first). 6 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Mount Vernon?
34% of Mount Vernon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1953.
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 Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
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