Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Napoli

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
B+History
History · Napoli

Napoli’s post office opened in 1828, and 14% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 66% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Its Register listing is the Gladden Windmill. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1922 on, and the census since 1830.

1828first post office
1on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Napoli’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Napoli began

When was Napoli founded?

1828

The Napoli post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 852 in 18302020 census: 1,171198 years

How historic is Napoli?

B+

More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Napoli post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Napoli’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Napoli is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Napoli’s overall grade.
Founding era1828, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194013.9% of homes (±6.4) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%BNational Register1 listing, 6.3 per 10,000 residents · typical NY town 12.3 · U.S. 2.4C+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 66%
NewerOlder

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 Napoli’s 6.3 sits near the middle of its state (39% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.4 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 Napoli’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1860 and 1940, then more than doubled.On the map since 19224 editions of the USGS map, 1922 to 1979. Watch Napoli change.Deep rootsA post office since 1828: 198 years of Napoli.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Napoli’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Napoli’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewThe "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Napoli, census by census

02004006008001,0001,20018501900195020001,238 in 1860Low: 570

Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1940, then more than doubled.

20 censuses, 1830–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Napoli’s Wikipedia page.

On the map

Napoli on the map, 1922 to 1979

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Napoli. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Napoli on the 1922 USGS mapNapoli on the 1943 USGS mapNapoli on the 1962 USGS mapNapoli on the 1979 USGS map1922Randolph 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 Napoli.

The story

How Napoli came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Napoli.

Read it all →

The first permanent White settler arrived circa 1819. The town of Napoli was formed in 1823 from part of the town of Little Valley. In 1828, a division of Napoli was made, forming the new town of Coldspring to the south.

Continental Charters Flight 44-2 crashed in Napoli on December 26, 1951.

The now-dismantled Gladden Windmill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Napoli, 1828 to 2010

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1828Post officeThe Napoli post office opens
  3. 1852Born hereCyrus G. Baldwin is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1910In the archiveThe "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek
  6. 1922On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1923Post officeThe Napoli post office closes
  8. 21st century
  9. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 1,248
By decade

Napoli, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s1 item
The "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek1910The "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek
1920s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Gladden Wind Turbine, Pigeon Valley RoadDate?Gladden Wind Turbine, Pigeon Valley Road
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.

The "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek
Retake this viewThe "Narrows," Cattaraugus Creek, 1910

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Napoli’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Napoli

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Gladden Windmill
Gladden Windmill
Structures
Gladden WindmillStructure

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Napoli had its own post office from 1828 to 1923.

Napoli
1828–1923
18201920today
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Napoli
Maple GrovePigeon ValleySouth Napoli

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

ConewangoIts storyB+New Albion1 historic placeA+ColdspringIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLittle Valley2 historic placesA

Questions about Napoli’s history

What year was Napoli founded?

The Napoli post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Napoli rank for history?

Napoli is more historic than 66% 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.

What is on the National Register in Napoli?

One place: the Gladden Windmill (listed 1973).

How old are the homes in Napoli?

14% of Napoli’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1977.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.