Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns · #658 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Alvord House, the Lucius Gleason House and the Liverpool Cemetery. Below: maps from 1895 on and the census since 1820.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Salina is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #658 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 Salina’s 0.9 sits below most of its state (22% of New York towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Salina’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1840 and 1850, then grew more than tenfold.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Salina’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Salina. 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 Salina.
From Wikipedia’s history of Salina.
The region was in the domain of the Onondaga tribe and later was within the Central New York Military Tract, although it was reserved for members of the Onondaga.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Salina, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The common schools existing prior to the city organization were all formed and maintained as schools of the town of Salina, under the general school laws. Neither the charter of the village of Salina, adopted in 1824, nor that of the village of Syracuse, in 1825, made any change in the status of the schools within their limits : they were from the first, and continued to be till 1848, common
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1798, a village was laid out and called Salina ; and when the town was set off and organized by 35 act of March 27, 1809, that was also named Salina. At the organization of the county, in 1794, the territory embraced in the town of Salina was comprehended in the original townships of Manlius and Marcellus ; and after the town of Onondaga was set
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.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Salina itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Salina is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns, #658 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.
Three places: the Alvord House (listed 1976), the Lucius Gleason House (1990) and the Liverpool Cemetery (2015).
15% of Salina’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1960.
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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, 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.
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