Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 63% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Pine Grove Community Church. Below: maps from 1911 on and the census since 1830.
The Watson post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Petries Corners (1875), Number Four (1881) and Bushes Landing (1891), 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, Watson is more historic than 63% of U.S. towns. 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 Watson’s 5.1 sits below most of its state (35% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Watson’s history is told.
Lost two-thirds of its people between 1840 and 1930, then grew 3-fold.
19 censuses, 1830–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Watson’s Wikipedia page.
Watson had its own post office from 1831 to 1923. 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Watson.
The area of Watson was first settled circa 1815. The town was formed from the town of Leyden in 1821. Parts of Watson were later taken to form the towns of Greig (1828), Diana (1830), Croghan (1841), and New Bremen (1848).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Watson, cut from the printed page as they were published.
ized a loan of $1,000 by the town of Watson, to be repaid by a tax, in from two to five years, and a loan by Lowville of $975, to rebuild the Watson bridge. The piers, abutments and draw, were built by the State in a most thorough and permanent manner, and the money raised by the two towns was applied
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He is an extensive land owner in the Town of Watson, Martinsburgh, and Montague, having in his possession some seven thousand acres. A steam saw-mill in Watson and another in Montague, owned by him, gives employment to from forty to seventy-five men most of the time.
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 hereEdward McGlachlin is 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 Watson. 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 Watson.
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Watson post office opened in 1831, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Watson is more historic than 63% 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.
One place: the Pine Grove Community Church (listed 2009).
12% of Watson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1981.
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, 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 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.
