Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns · #261 of 758 in New York. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 16 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1901 on, and the census since 1830.
Olive dates its founding to 1740 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). The census first counted it in 1830.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Olive is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #261 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Olive’s 47.0 sits above most of its state (68% of New York towns have fewer) while its 20 historic buildings outnumber those of 79% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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.
Olive had its own post office from 1832 to 1913. Six 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 Olive’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1910 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Olive’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Olive.
The town was settled circa 1740. The town of Olive was established in 1823 from parts of the towns of Hurley, Marbletown, and Shandaken. A limited edition 1973 commemorative plate, shown below, includes this text on the back:
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Olive, cut from the printed page as they were published.
ning thence norlli two degrees and thirty-six minutes east, two hundred and forty-seven chains, to the north side of the Bondout Kill : then north fifty degrees and four minutes west, to the corner of the town of Olive; then northeasterly and northerly along the hounds of Olive to the town of Hurley : then southeasterly and southerly along the bounds of Hurley to New Paltz.; and then along the hounds of New Paltz southwesterly to the place of beginning." — St-itiilci, vol. i. page 219.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
lying within the following bound?, —viz., beginning at a point where the south line of great lot No. 6 of the IlarJenburgh patent intersects the town of Rochester, anil running thence along the said line to the corner of the town of Olive; thence alODg the line of tiie towns of Olive and Shandaken to the centre of groat lot No. 7, in the Hardenburgh patent; thcnco along a line as run by 'William Cockburn in the year one thousaud seven hundred and eighty-four, north fifty-one degrees forty minutes west about fourteen and a half miles, to the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Olive was formed from Marbletown, Shandaken and Hurley, April 15, 1823. A part was annexed to Woodstock and a part of Woodstock annexed to Olive in 1853.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
the town of Hardenbergh was taken off, which left the boundaries about as follows: On the northeast by the town of Shandaken, on the southeast by the towns of Olive and Rochester, on the southwest by the town of Wawarsing and Sullivan County, and on the northeast by the town of Hardenbergh. It contains 64,050 acres of land.
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.
BuiltOlive and Hurley Old School Baptist Church is built
In the archiveBeers Ulster County Atlas Page045
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveBill's Auto Service Mobil Gasoline signs, Route 213, Olivebridge, New York2 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Olive. 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 Olive.
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 Olive’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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1740, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Olive’s post office opened in 1832, and the census of 1830 counted 1,636 people here.
Olive is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #261 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.
5 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Olive and Hurley Old School Baptist Church (listed 1998, the first), 2 historic districts, the Ashokan Field Campus Historic District and the Al Held House and Studio, with 16 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 20 historic buildings in all.
17% of Olive’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 1975.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
1875
1875
2008
2008
