Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: AITFFan1 · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #410 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Most of Oyster Bay was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1957. 61 places in town are on the National Register, among them four historic districts with 52 buildings between them. Below: 16 old photos and papers, maps from 1891 on, and the census since 1790.
Oyster Bay dates its founding to 1667 (Wikidata). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Oyster Bay is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #410 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Oyster Bay ranks #118 on History.
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 Oyster Bay’s 6.2 sits near the middle of its state (38% of New York towns have fewer) while its 186 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% 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.
The 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.
Oyster Bay’s post office has been open since 1806. Four other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Bayville Cemetery · Brookville Cemetery · East Hillside Cemetery · Locust Cemetery · Locust Valley Cemetery · Matinecock Friends Meeting House Cemetery · Oak Hill Cemetery · Old Grace Cemetery · Plain Lawn Cemetery · Pratt Cemetery · Quaker Cemetery · Saint Johns Memorial Cemetery · Saint Patrick Cemetery · Smith Cemetery · Theodore Roosevelt Grave · Townsend Cemetery · Underhill Cemetery · Wesley United Methodist Church Cemetery · Youngs Memorial Cemetery · Zion Cemetery
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.
BuiltMatinecock Friends Meetinghouse is built
In the archiveNicholas Bennett (1743-1796) in the 1790 census
In the archiveRem Cashow (1768-1816) in the New York, U.S., Tax Assessment Rolls of Real and Personal E…
In the archiveUntitled photo
In the archiveHenry K. Lattin (1806-1894) in the 1850 US census in Oyster Bay, New York, page 1BuiltSeawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club is built
In the archiveTranquility, summer home at Oyster Bay of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt
Born hereHenry Norris Russell is born here
In the archiveSanborn Fire Insurance Map from North Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York. LOC sanborn061…
Born hereTheodore Roosevelt Jr. is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltSea Cliff Firehouse is built
BuiltA. Conger Goodyear House is builtFrom Wikipedia’s history of Oyster Bay.
Succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples had lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of European contact, the Lenape (Delaware) nation inhabited western Long Island. By 1600 the band inhabiting the local area was called the Matinecock after their location, but they were Lenape people.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
8 decades in the archive, from the 1790s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1850Henry K. Lattin (1806-1894) in the 1850 US census in …1872Tranquility, summer home at Oyster Bay of Mr. and Mrs…1885Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from North Oyster Bay, Nas…Map
1890Oyster Bay Fleet's Hall Historic
1890Grave of Theodore Roosevelt
1897Oyster Bay Chronicles in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on …![Soub [sic]](https://images.townratings.com/story/28978/6390f359b7e5266235bb-s.jpg)
1898Soub [sic]Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Oyster Bay. 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 Oyster Bay.
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.
1891Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Oyster Bay’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 4,097 and 333,342 people in every census since 1790.
23 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Oyster Bay’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1667, according to Wikidata. Oyster Bay’s post office opened in 1802, and the first U.S. census counted 4,097 people here in 1790.
Oyster Bay is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #410 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.
61 listings: 55 buildings, among them the Sagamore Hill National Historic Site (listed 1966, the first), 4 historic districts with 52 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 186 historic buildings in all.
10% of Oyster Bay’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1957.
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 (13), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (61), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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