The story
Read it all →How Tuscarora came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Tuscarora.
Tuscarora was formed in 1859 from part of the town of Addison.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
B−History
History · Tuscarora
26% of Tuscarora’s homes were built before 1940
More historic than 48% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1944 on, and the census since 1860.
0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Quick answers
About Tuscarora’s history
How historic is Tuscarora?
B−
What drives the grade ↓More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
History grade
What drives Tuscarora’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Tuscarora is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Tuscarora’s overall grade.
Founding eraNo founding year we can rely on, so the grade uses the other two–Homes built before 194026.4% of homes (±8.2) · typical NY town 26.6% · U.S. 8.4%A−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical NY town 12.3 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 48%
NewerOlder
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 Tuscarora’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (10% of New York towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on two of the three inputs, so a change in either one moves the letter more than it would with three. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±8.2 points).
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 →
What stands out about Tuscarora’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds
Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
South Addison
Addison Hill
Freeman
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
FreemanNicholsSouth AddisonSunflower Acres Mobile Home ParkVan VleetWagon Wheel Mobile Home ParkWoods Corner
Gone or out of use
Liberty Pole SchoolschoolMack Hill SchoolschoolNichols SchoolschoolOrr Hill SchoolschoolStead SchoolschoolWilliams Schoolschool
5cemeteries and burying grounds inside Tuscarora
Addison HillFreemanLiberty PoleNicholsSwan
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Tuscarora’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Tuscarora’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Timeline
Tuscarora, 1852 to 1944
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1852Post officeThe South Addison post office opens
- 1853Post officeThe Addison Hill post office opens
- 1873
In the archiveTuscarora Business Notices.; Tuscarora (Township) - 1883Post officeThe Freeman post office opens
- 20th century
- 1904Post officeThe Addison Hill post office closes
- 1907Post officeThe South Addison post office closes
- 1907Post officeThe Freeman post office closes
- 1944
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
Tuscarora, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1876
2011On the map
Tuscarora on the map, 1944 to 1978
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Tuscarora. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1944Woodhull sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Tuscarora.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewTuscarora Business Notices.; Tuscarora (Township), 1873
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Tuscarora’s page.
Retake this view · +15People over time
Tuscarora, census by census
Between 839 and 1,566 people in every census since 1860.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Tuscarora’s Wikipedia page.
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Tuscarora’s history
How does Tuscarora rank for history?
Tuscarora is more historic than 48% 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 Tuscarora?
26% of Tuscarora’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1975.
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Start a conversation
Sources
Where this page comes from
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 (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.