Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1811.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Richmond’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Richmond is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #669 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 Richmond’s overall grade.
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 Richmond’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 B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.1 points). Two sources give 1796.
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 →
What stands out about Richmond’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Richmond was part of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. The area was first settled around 1790. The town was established in 1796 as "Pittstown", after Captain Peter Pitts, and was renamed "Honeoye" in 1808. In 1815, the name was changed to "Richmond", after Peter Pitts' wife, Abigail Richmond Pitts, regarded as the town's "founding mother." More territory was added to Richmond from the Town of Canadice in 1836. Parts of the Towns of Bristol and South Bristol were added to Richmond in 1848, but were returned to their previous towns in 1852.
Passages that mention Richmond, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York from its discovery to the present time1887Read the page →
Read the text
Other village incorporations have been attempted, but their existence has been of short duration. In 1823 the legislature passed an act incorporating the village of Richmond, but the organization was not consumated. Tottenville was incorporated by an act of April 28, 1869, which was amended April 14, 1871.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York from its discovery to the present time1887 · page 357Read the page →
Read the text
1769 a deed was given by Jacob Rezeau to the Rev. Mr. Jackson and the consistory of the Reformed Dutch church at Richmond and the session of the English Presbyterian church at Stony Brook, for land in the village of Richmond on which to build a church, these two bodies being desirous of uniting. From this it would appear that after the Waldenses left Stony Brook, in order to unite with the Dutch and the French Huguenots in 1717, as already mentioned, a Presbyterian church
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
Richmond, 1796 to 2000
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1796, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Richmond’s post office opened in 1811, and the census of 1820 counted 2,765 people here.
How does Richmond rank for history?
Richmond is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #669 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 Richmond?
14% of Richmond’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 the Library of Congress (1), 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.
