Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1807.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Sackets Harbor’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sackets Harbor is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Sackets Harbor’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 Sackets Harbor’s 1,685 sits above most of its state (98% of New York towns have fewer) while its 251 historic buildings outnumber those of 94% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1801.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.5 points).
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 →
What stands out about Sackets Harbor’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Prior to the American Revolutionary War, this area had been inhabited for thousands of years by differing cultures of indigenous peoples. The historic tribe were the Iroquoian-speaking Onondaga, part of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. Long trading with the French and English, the Mohawk and most of the Six Nations allied with the British during the Revolution, hoping to dislodge the American colonists from their territory. Following the war, they were forced to make major cessions of most of their land in New York to the United States. Most of the Iroquois went to Canada and settled on land granted by Great Britain.
Passages that mention Sackets Harbor, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of Jefferson County in the state of New York1854 · page 186Read the page →
Read the text
By the act of April 28, 1839, a tax was imposed upon real estate within the village of Sackets Harbor, and on the mill sites on Pleasant Creek, amounting to $3000 in two years, to be assessed in proportion to the benefits to be received, and on 20th of April, 1&30, Elisha Camp was appointed a commissioner for this duty in place of Daniel Hall, resigned, and the act was extended till June of that year. A canal twenty feet wide at top and twelve at bottom, four feet deep, was made in 1830, from
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Rome Railroad was completed to the former village, running for about five and a half miles through the present town. In 1873 the Carthage, Watertown and Sackets Harbor Railroad company completed its, road to the city of Watertown, two and a half miles being in the town proper. In 1874 the same road was extended to Sackets Harbor, which
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Until the railroad reached Watertown, the village of Sackets Harbor was one of the busiest places in the country for seven months of the year, and its business men ranked second to none in enterprise, ability and commercial rating. Long lines of loaded wagons filled its main street from March to November, delivering the butter, cheese and grain
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A history of Jefferson County in the state of New York1854 · page 458Read the page →
Read the text
Christian Bergh and Henry Eckford, and was pierced for sixteen guns. A company of infantry, under Captain Bennet, and of twenty-three artillerymen, under Lieutenant Cross, were stationed at Sackets Harbor in 1808, and early in March, 1809, two detachments of militia (forty-five men), from Colonel Paul Stickney's regiment, were drawn out, twenty of whom were stationed on the St. Lawrence, opposite Kingston, and the remainder on the Oswegatchie road, where several routes united. The
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.
By decade
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Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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In 1801, according to Wikidata. Sackets Harbor’s post office opened in 1807.
How does Sackets Harbor rank for history?
Sackets Harbor is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns. 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 Sackets Harbor?
37% of Sackets Harbor’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 Wikidata (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people 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.
