Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns · #533 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Sylvan Beach Union Chapel. Below: maps from 1895 on and the census since 1820.
The Vienna post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name. Five smaller post offices, Bengal (1813), Pine (1832) and West Vienna (1838), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 69% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Vienna is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #533 of 758 in New York. Its age 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 Vienna’s 1.9 sits below most of its state (25% of New York towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
Vienna had its own post office from 1819 to 1915. Five 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Vienna’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1860 and 1920, then grew 3-fold.
20 censuses, 1820–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Vienna’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Vienna.
Vienna was formed out of the town of Camden when it was divided in April 1807. The town's original name was "Orange" but shortly after the town's formation, it was renamed to "Bengal." Eight years later, in 1816, Bengal was renamed to its current name of Vienna.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Vienna, cut from the printed page as they were published.
It was a more difficult matter to reorganize the monarchy t Prussia. We have mentioned the negotiations, in consequence of which she acquired about a half of the kingdom of Saxony, The Congress of Vienna restored to her not only a part of ancient Prussia, now called the Grand Dutchy of Posnania, and all the other possessions which she had lost by the convention of Vienna, (Dec. 15, 1805,) and the peace of Tilsit (with the exception of Bialystock, Anspach, Baireuth, Westfriesland, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The Belgians soon followed the example of the French, in the career of revolution, by rising and expelling a king that had been forced upon them against their wishes. The congress of Vienna, it will be recollected, in 1814 and 1815, severed the Netherlands from France, with which it had been incorporated since 1795, and constituted it with the United Provinces, into one political body, under William, Prince of Orange, having the title of King of the Netherlands. This was done with a view
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Vienna. 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 Vienna.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Vienna itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Vienna post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Vienna is more historic than 69% of U.S. towns, #533 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 Sylvan Beach Union Chapel (listed 2009).
20% of Vienna’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 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.
