Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns · #154 of 758 in New York. What drives it
11 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 59 buildings. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1830.
The Skaneateles post office opened in 1804, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Hartsville (1826), Mandana (1828) and Mottville (1832), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Skaneateles is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #154 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 age 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 Skaneateles’ 111 sits above most of its state (77% of New York towns have fewer) while its 79 historic buildings outnumber those of 88% 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.
Skaneateles’s post office has been open since 1804. Four 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 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Skaneateles. 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 Skaneateles.
From Wikipedia’s history of Skaneateles.
The area was part of the former Central New York Military Tract. On February 26, 1830, the town of Skaneateles was formed from the town of Marcellus, and the town later annexed areas of the Town of Spafford in 1840. Early turnpikes facilitated development. The town was noted for participation in reform movements before the Civil War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Skaneateles, cut from the printed page as they were published.
made in the above entitled cause, I, the subscriber, one of the Masters of the said court, will sell at public auction, on Wednesday, the thirteenth day of March next, at two o'clock in the afternoon of that day, at the "Indian Queen," kept by Isaac W. Perry, in the village of Skaneateles, "All that certain piece or parcel of land, situate, lying and being in the village of Skaneateles, in the county of Onondaga, and being a part of lot No. Thirty-six, in the township of Marcellus, and bounded and described as follows : Beginning in the centre of the outlet of the Skaneateles Lake, at a point northerly of the east line of the garden ground belonging to Isaac Sherwood, thence southerly till it strikes the north east corner of said
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
After assuming a permanent residence in the village of Skaneateles, in the year 1851, the change from an active business life became very apparent, and necessitated not only physical, but mental occupation. While considering some project of. pleasurable employment which would be of general interest and beneficial to the community at large, the subject of investigating the pioneer settlement of both the town and the village of Skaneateles was brought to mind by learning that all the public records of the town had been destroyed by fire in the year 1835. Therefore, under these conditions, the subject of investigating
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 hereSheldon Dibble is born hereBuiltJames and Lydia Canning Fuller House is built
Born hereMorton S. Wilkinson is born hereBuiltShepard Settlement Cemetery is builtBuiltCommunity Place is built
Born hereFrances Julia Barnes is born here
In the archiveSkaneateles, N.Y
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archive10-Mile-Point-Skaneateles-Lake-New-York-1907
In the archiveSkaneateles,NY - Simpler times
Born hereNeilia Hunter is born here
In the archiveCommunity Place, Skaneateles (Onondaga County, New York)4 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1884Skaneateles, N.Y190710-Mile-Point-Skaneateles-Lake-New-York-19071930sSkaneateles,NY - Simpler times
1933DETAIL OF DORIC ENTRANCE PORTICO AND DOOR - Small Jew…
1933FRONT ELEVATION - Dr. Benedict House, 43 State Street
1933FRONT ELEVATION - Freeborn Jewett Mansion, 11 Genesee…
1933FRONT, SHOWING CORBELLED EAVES - Loveless House, 77 J…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 3Sanborn 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 Skaneateles’ page.
Retake this view · +15Between 3,812 and 7,825 people in every census since 1830.
20 censuses, 1830–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Skaneateles’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Skaneateles post office opened in 1804, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Skaneateles is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #154 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.
11 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Community Place (listed 1979, the first), 1 historic district, the Skaneateles Historic District, with 59 contributing buildings, and 3 sites. 79 historic buildings in all.
37% of Skaneateles’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1956.
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 (11), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (11), 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.
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