Founding year: the first Valley Stream post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Valley Stream’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Valley Stream is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #697 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Valley Stream’s overall grade.
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 Valley Stream’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 any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Valley Stream’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Valley Stream. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1897Hempstead sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Valley Stream.
In the year 1640, 14 years after the arrival of Dutch colonists in Manhattan (New Amsterdam), the area that is now Valley Stream was purchased by the Dutch West India Company from Rockaway Native Americans, they were part of the Algonquian-speaking Lenape people. Reckouwacky, or the modern translation, Rockaway, means “place of our own people,” "sandy place," or “place of laughing waters”
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
The Valley Stream post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Valley Stream rank for history?
Valley Stream is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #697 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.
How old are the homes in Valley Stream?
30% of Valley Stream’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.2 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1951.
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), the Library of Congress (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1920
1920
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