Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns · #629 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1820.
The New Haven post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, West Mexico (1813), Butterfly (1828) and South New Haven (1877), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 57% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, New Haven is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #629 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 New Haven’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
New Haven’s post office has been open since 1819. Five 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 New Haven’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1930, then more than doubled.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on New Haven’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of New Haven.
The area was originally called "Vera Cruz." The Town of New Haven was taken from the Town of Mexico in 1813, before the founding of Oswego County.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention New Haven, cut from the printed page as they were published.
uary, 1784, the representatives of the town in the (leneral Assembly were requested to exert themselves, that the act for incorporating a part of the town of New Haven be passed with all convenient speed. Three days afterward, the General Assembly passed the desired act of incorporation, enacting that all freemen of this State, inhabitants of New Haven, residing within certain limits, "shall
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in 1845, authorized the Company to build its railroad "from some suitable point in the town of Plymouth, or in the town of VVaterbury, to Derby, and thence to the City of New Haven, or to the town of Milford, or to the town of Bridgeport, " etc. In the ne.\t year the New Haven and Northampton Company was authorized to build its road.
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.
Born hereJohn F. Kinney is born here
In the archiveNew Haven Business Directory.; New Haven (Village); New Haven (Township)
Born hereGertrude Bartlett is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1860s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of New Haven. 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 New Haven.
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 New Haven’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The New Haven post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
New Haven is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #629 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.
19% of New Haven’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1980.
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 (6), 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.
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