Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 21% of U.S. towns · #736 of 758 in New York. What drives it
Most of Wheatfield was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1840.
More historic than 21% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wheatfield is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #736 of 758 in New York. Its share of homes from before 1940 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 Wheatfield’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.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Four 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 Wheatfield’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1880 and 1910, then grew more than tenfold.
19 censuses, 1840–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wheatfield’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Wheatfield.
The Town of Wheatfield was formed in 1836 from the Town of Niagara. It is situated in the southwest part of the county, surrounded by the towns of Lewiston and Cambria to the north, Pendleton to the east, the City of North Tonawanda and the Niagara River to the south, and the City of Niagara Falls and Town of Niagara to the west.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Wheatfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
station at Mapleton, and the other the well known trolley line, with three stations within the town, Hodgeville, Pendleton Center, and, lastly, Hoffman, on the division line between this town and the Town of Wheatfield. Pendleton’s debt to -the canal. Historically speaking, if I plainly express my real conviction, I say Pendleton owes, if not its very existence, all its substantial progress and prosperity, to the canal. It
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In this sketch I shall take the liberty of making copious extracts from the history of Niagara County, published in 1878, which is the best record of the Town of Wheatfield available, incorporating therewith whatever I have learned of the history of the town, by tradition or experience, in a lifetime spent within its borders.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The town of Wheatfield was taken from Niagaira, by an act of the Legislature dated May 12th, 1836. SUPERVISORS.
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.
In the archiveTown of Wheatfield Business Notices.; Wheatfield (Township)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wheatfield. 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 Wheatfield.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Wheatfield’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Wheatfield itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Wheatfield is more historic than 21% of U.S. towns, #736 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.
9% of Wheatfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (12), 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.
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