Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Jeremiah Cronkite House · Photo: Steven Hamsness · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 63% of U.S. towns · #574 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Most of Victor was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1820.
The Victor post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Railroad Mills (1893), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Victor is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #574 of 758 in New York. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls 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 Victor’s 8.1 sits near the middle of its state (43% of New York towns have fewer) while its 13 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Victor’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Victor. 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 Victor.
Victor’s post office has been open since 1815. Another post office, Railroad Mills, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Victor.
An important Seneca village, known as Gannagaro or Ganondagan (Seneca: Tganödagë:ën), was located within the area of this town. The tribe abandoned the village and the area about it after being severely attacked in 1687 by French invaders from Canada. They were trying to control the lucrative fur trade.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Victor, cut from the printed page as they were published.
built and rebuilt bridges across it. Almost all the pontoniers perished of cold or were drowned. Then, while on the right of the river Ney and Oudinot held back the army of Tchitchagof, and Victor on the left that of Wittgenstein, the guard, with Napoleon, passed over. Victor, after having killed or wounded ten thousand of Wittgenstein's Russians, passed over during the night. When, in the morning, the rear-guard began to cross the bridges, a crowd of fugi-
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 herePorter Sheldon is born here
Born hereJ. N. Loughborough is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGanondagan - Longhouse under constructionOne decade in the archive so far: the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
1904Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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.
Grew from 2,084 people in 1820 to 15,969 in 2020, 7 times over.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Victor’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Victor post office opened in 1815, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Victor is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns, #574 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Osborne House (listed 1980, the first), and 1 structure. 13 historic buildings in all.
7% of Victor’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.8 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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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