Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nfgusedautoparts · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 82% of U.S. towns · #401 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Albert R. Fox House and the Sand Lake Baptist Church. Its Register listings are the Albert R. Fox House and the Sand Lake Baptist Church. Below: maps from 1893 on and old-book passages.
The Sand Lake post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Ulinesville (1828), East Sand Lake (1839) and Averill (1880), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sand Lake is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #401 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 Sand Lake’s 7.2 sits near the middle of its state (41% of New York towns have fewer) while its 6 historic buildings outnumber those of 72% 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.
Sand Lake’s post office has been open since 1815. Five 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 Sand Lake’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sand Lake. 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 Sand Lake.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sand Lake.
The hamlet was originally referred to as Sliter's Corners. When the original hamlet of Sand Lake renamed itself Averill Park, New York Sliter's Corners was renamed
The Eastern Turnpike was built through the hamlet between 1801-1804.
The section from Averill Park to the Massachusetts State Border (including this intersection) was declared public in 1824.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Sand Lake, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Sand Lake, town of, 105-07, 115, 157, 171. Sand Lake, village, 107. Schaghticoke Hill, village, 91.
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.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs 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 Sand Lake itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Sand Lake post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sand Lake is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #401 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.
Two places: the Albert R. Fox House (listed 2001) and the Sand Lake Baptist Church (2004).
24% of Sand Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
