Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Orwell was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. Its Register listing is the Stillwater Bridge. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1820.
Orwell dates its founding to 1806 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1820.
More historic than 61% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orwell is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls 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 Orwell’s 10.9 sits near the middle of its state (47% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Orwell’s history is told.
Orwell’s post office has been open since 1829. Another post office, Molino, 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).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveOrwell (Township); Orwell Corners. (Village); Orwell Business Directory
In the archiveMrs. Melvin Rivers, some of her children and her father-in-law in their new New York relo…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Orwell.
The town was first settled around 1806. The Town of Orwell was created from part of the Town of Richland in 1817. In 1828, Orwell was reduced by the founding of the Town of Boylston, but more territory was obtained from Richland in 1844.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Orwell, cut from the printed page as they were published.
their families, made their residence on the north bank of the Salmon river, about a mile below the site of the present village of Molino or Pekin, being the first settlers within the limits of the present town of Orwell. One of Mr. Eastman's children was Elliott, who, being born with the century, was then six years old, and is now seventyseven, — being a resident of Molino, and the sole survivor of the little party which took possession of Orwell in behalf
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1818 there were but two school districts in the present town of Orwell, besides one up in the Boylston section. That summer a school was taught by Lucy Gilbert, at the house of James Wood, on the Sandy Creek road. The same season a small frame school-house was built at Orwell Corners. The funds were not sufficient to plaster it, but v.ood was abundant, and huge fires kept the children warm on alternate sides, while the snow came down in blankets
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
which furnished but a scanty livelihood; and as his sons grew up, one by one, they left Willington, and came to seek homes and fortunes in the almost untrodden wilderness, which became, later, the township of Orwell. Orrin, the oldest, came to Jefferson county about 1807 to visit his uncle, Ozni Stowell. Being pleased with the new country, he shortly after settled upon what was afterwards known as the “Dunlap Stand,” on the Ridge Road, Richland. From an old
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Fires. — In 1835 there were but two school houses in Orwell, one at Pekin and one half-a-mile north of Moscow, near Samuel Stowell’s. The first fire of which we have any record, is the burning of the old school house in the latter district in 1 835. It was quite old and had been used for a shop while building a new one.
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orwell. 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 Orwell.
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 Orwell’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.
Between 336 and 1,550 people in every census since 1820.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Orwell’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1806, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Orwell’s post office opened in 1829, and the census of 1820 counted 336 people here.
Orwell is more historic than 61% 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.
One place: the Stillwater Bridge (listed 1997).
9% of Orwell’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
1941
