Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns · #486 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listing is the St. Paul's Church and Cemetery. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1887 on and the census since 1800.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Paris is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #486 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 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 Paris’ 2.3 sits below most of its state (26% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
Paris’s post office has been open since 1800. Three 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 Paris’s history is told.
Peaked at 6,707 in 1820; 4,332 people lived here in 2020.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Paris’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Paris.
The town was formed in 1792 from part of the town of Whitestown. In 1795, part of Paris was used to found the town of Sherburne (now in Chenango County). In 1827, the town of Kirkland, New York was separated from the town of Paris.
The St. Paul's Church and Cemetery at Paris Hill was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Paris, cut from the printed page as they were published.
that, upon receiving his stole, the army was withdrawn from the city, and, upon Childebert's return to Paris, a church was founded by him in honour of that saint, which became afterwards the celebrated abbey of S.
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 hereLeander Babcock is born here
Born hereEdward Tompkins is born here
Born hereMoses Clark White is born here
In the archiveErecting the statueOne decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Paris’ 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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Paris is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #486 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.
One place: the St. Paul's Church and Cemetery (listed 1996).
35% of Paris’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2023
2023