Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns · #220 of 758 in New York. What drives it
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 3 buildings. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1820.
The Phelps post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Orleans (1833), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Phelps is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #220 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Phelps’ 19.6 sits near the middle of its state (56% of New York towns have fewer) while its 13 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Phelps’s history is told.
Phelps’s post office has been open since 1812. Another post office, Orleans, 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Phelps. 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 Phelps.
From Wikipedia’s history of Phelps.
The town was part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The region was first settled around 1788. The town was formed in 1796 and was formerly known as "Sullivan." The town of Phelps is named after one of the original proprietors. The community was incorporated in 1855.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Phelps, cut from the printed page as they were published.
outlet of the Silver Lake. This supplied the first boards had in the upper valley of the Genesee. It was built in 1792, and raised by the help of the Indians, for the want of sufficient white men in the country. In some of the earliest years. Judge Phelps had a distillery erected near the present village of Moscow. In 1800, Augustus Porter, as the agent of Oliver Phelps, laid out the village of * And this, tiie author would hero remark, was not unlike the relation that existed hetween most of the Pioneers of the Genesee country and the Indians, where they
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Ossian was one of the early sales of Phelps and Gorham, to Jeremiah Wadsworth, who sold it to Robert Troup. It was included in the agencies of James Wadsworth, under whose auspicies its sale and settlement commenced. A saw mill vas built there in 1806. Frederick Covert, Win. Boyle, Samuel M'Crea, Richard Porter, Joshua Carpenter, Elijah Belknap, James Rooker, Wm.. Lemen, James Gregory, and James Boylan, had became purchasers, and it is presumed most of them settlers in 1807. Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
outlet of ihe Silver Lake. This supplied the first boards had in the upper valley of the Genesee. It was built in 1792, and raised by the help of the Indians, for the want of sufficient white men in the country. In some of the earliest years, Judge Phelps had a distillery erected near the present village of Moscow. In 1800, Augustus Porter, as the agent of Oliver Phelps, laid put the village of - the author would here remark, was not unlike the relation thai between mosl of the Pioneers of th • country and the Indians, where they
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Mr. Moses also has another relic of the olden time that possesses great antiquarian interest, especially to the family of Phelps in general, in the form of an old lease, written on only one side of a sheet of paper (which he has permitted the editor to copy for this book), made and executed by Beujaman Phelps of Simsbury, Conn., to Thomas Phelps of the same place.
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 hereHiram Berdan is born here
Born hereCharles C. Stevenson is born here
Born hereCharles G. Conn is born here
In the archiveMain Street
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born herePaul D. MacLean is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
1884Sheet 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 Phelps’ 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 4,205 and 7,072 people in every census since 1820.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Phelps’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Phelps post office opened in 1812, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Phelps is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns, #220 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.
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the St. John's Episcopal Church (listed 1978, the first), and 1 historic district, the Oliver Warner Farmstead, with 3 contributing buildings. 13 historic buildings in all.
46% of Phelps’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1953.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (8), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1907
1907
1908
2008
2006