The story
Read it all →How Palermo came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Palermo.
The first permanent settler arrived circa 1803. The Town of Palermo was created in 1832 from the Town of Volney.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
BHistory
History · Palermo
Palermo’s post office opened in 1828, and 21% of its homes were built before 1940
More historic than 58% of U.S. towns · #613 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Below: maps from 1900 on and the census since 1840.
1828first post office
0on the National Register
21%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Quick answers
How Palermo began
When was Palermo founded?
1828
The Palermo post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Loomis Corners (1821), Vermillion (1843) and East Palermo (1862), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,928 in 18402020 census: 3,470198 years
How historic is Palermo?
B
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 58% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Palermo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Palermo’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Palermo is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #613 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Palermo’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 194021.1% of homes (±7.4) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%B+National RegisterNo listings counted · typical NY town 12.3 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 58%
NewerOlder
New York towns of 2,500+ (758)Ahead of 19%
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 Palermo’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.4 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 Palermo’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost villages5 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Palermo, and 11 old place names are still on the map.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Palermo are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost half of its people between 1860 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.On the map since 19004 editions of the USGS map, 1900 to 1978. Watch Palermo change.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Palermo had its own post office from 1828 to 1910. Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Loomis Corners
Palermo
Vermillion
East Palermo
Catfish
Clifford
18201920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Catfish CornersCliffordCribbs CornerEast PalermoLoomis CornerMungers CornersPeat CornersRuss MillsSuttons CornerUpson CornersVermilion
Gone or out of use
School Number 1schoolSchool Number 1schoolSchool Number 10schoolSchool Number 2schoolSchool Number 3schoolSchool Number 4schoolSchool Number 6schoolSpring Brook AirportairportSuttons Corner Gap Filler Annexmilitary
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Palermo
CliffordPalermoSayles CornersTinkersUpsons Corners
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Palermo’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Palermo’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Palermo, census by census
Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
18 censuses, 1840–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Palermo’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Palermo in 1877
Passages that mention Palermo, cut from the printed page as they were published.
... History of Oswego County, New York1877 · page 232Read the page →
Read the text
about two thousand five hundred dollars. When the Presbyterian church was formed at Fulton, in 1818, some of the members of this society joined that one, and in 1823 quite a number united with a church in Palermo. There are four hundred names on the church record from first to last, the present membership being about sixty. The present ofiScers of the church society are as follows : Deacons, Henry W. Williams, Chauncey Baldwin, and Robinson Young.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
... History of Oswego County, New York1877Read the page →
Read the text
The first church edifice* erected in Palermo was by the Baptist denomination, at the centre, in 1836. It still stands, after a service of more than forty years.
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.
Timeline
Palermo, 1821 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1821Post officeThe Loomis Corners post office opens
- 1822Post officeThe Loomis Corners post office closes
- 1825
Born hereNancy H. Adsit is born here - 1828Post officeThe Palermo post office opens
- 1843Post officeThe Vermillion post office opens
- 20th century
- 1900
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 1908Post officeThe Vermillion post office closes
- 1910Post officeThe Palermo post office closes
- 21st century
- 2000CensusPopulation peaks at 3,686
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your albumOn the map
Palermo on the map, 1900 to 1978
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Palermo. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1900Fulton sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Palermo.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Palermo’s history
What year was Palermo founded?
The Palermo post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Palermo rank for history?
Palermo is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #613 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.
How old are the homes in Palermo?
21% of Palermo’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1978.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 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.