Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns · #356 of 758 in New York. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 2 buildings. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1830.
The Somerset post office opened in 1825, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, County Line (1837), West Somerset (1847) and South Somerset (1871), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 85% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Somerset is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #356 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 Somerset’s 6.5 sits near the middle of its state (39% of New York towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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.
Somerset had its own post office from 1825 to 1901. Three 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Somerset. 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 Somerset.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1870s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1933EXTERIOR, EAST FRONT - Morgan Van Wagoner House, Hosm…
1933EXTERIOR, EAST FRONT, BAY WINDOW - Morgan Van Wagoner…
1933EXTERIOR, NORTHWEST CORNER, OBLIQUE VIEW - Morgan Van…
1933EXTERIOR, PORCH, NORTHWEST CORNER - Morgan Van Wagone…
1933EXTERIOR, SOUTH SIDE - Morgan Van Wagoner House, Hosm…
1933EXTERIOR, SOUTH SIDE, COBBLES AND QUOINS DETAIL - Mor…
1933EXTERIOR, SOUTH SIDE, QUOINS AND CORNICE DETAIL - Mor…
1933EXTERIOR, SOUTHWEST CORNER, OBLIQUE VIEW - Morgan Van…
1933EXTERIOR, WEST REAR - Morgan Van Wagoner House, Hosme…
1933HABS NY,32-SOM,1B- (sheet 1 of 3) - Morgan Van Wagone…From Wikipedia’s history of Somerset.
The Town of Somerset was established in 1823 from a section of the Town of Hartland. Part of Somerset was used later to form the Town of Newfane.
The Thirty Mile Point Light is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Somerset, cut from the printed page as they were published.
(II) John Cobaugh, eldest son of Frederick Cobaugh, was a native of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, born in March, 1788, died January, 1874 He went to Somerset county about 1805, and there settled on a farm in Somerset township, two and a half miles north of the town of Somerset, which is now owned by George W. G. Cobaugh. John Cobaugh married Rebecca Good, who lived to be eighty years of age, and by whom he had two children, viz.: George and Sarah (Mrs. Lichty).
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
AVilliam M. Schrock, a prominent and widely known citizen of Somerset, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, former proprietor and editor of the Somerset Standard, who rendered signal service to the government during the Civil war, and who is at present engineer and superintendent of the work of constructing the bridges in Somerset county, traces his descent to ancestors who had for their home the beautiful country of Switzerland.
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.
In the archiveSomerset (Township); Town of Somerset Business Notices
BuiltThirty Mile Point Light is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyIn the archiveEXTERIOR, EAST FRONT - Morgan Van Wagoner House, Hosmer RoadNo 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 Somerset’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 871 and 2,865 people in every census since 1830.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Somerset’s Wikipedia page.
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 Somerset post office opened in 1825, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Somerset is more historic than 85% of U.S. towns, #356 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.
One place: the Thirty Mile Point Light (listed 1984).
37% of Somerset’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1964.
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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
1875