Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Beyond My Ken · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 90% of U.S. towns · #269 of 758 in New York. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 53 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1892 on, and the census since 1820.
The Woodstock post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1829. Five smaller post offices, Daisy (1891), Zena (1891) and Wittenberg (1892), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Woodstock is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #269 of 758 in New York. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Woodstock’s 97.5 sits above most of its state (75% of New York towns have fewer) while its 61 historic buildings outnumber those of 86% 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.
Woodstock’s post office has been open since 1819. 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 Woodstock’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Woodstock. 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 Woodstock.
From Wikipedia’s history of Woodstock.
The first non-indigenous settler arrived around 1770, and the town of Woodstock was established in 1787. Later, territory from Woodstock was contributed to form the towns of Middletown (1789), Windham (1798), Shandaken (1804), and Olive (1853).
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Woodstock, cut from the printed page as they were published.
and stage-coaches had no longer any place, and the stage-coach soon began to disappear as a public conveyance along the highways of the land. On the 30th of October, 1863, an act was passed by the General Assembly incorporating the Woodstock Railroad Company, to run from some point in the village of Woodstock to some point on or near White River or Connecticut River, either in the town of Hartland or Hartford, as the company should elect. Several years elapsed before any organiza-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
WILLIAM S. MEAD, proprietor of Mead’s Hotel, is the pioneer among the many famous hotel keepers in the Catskill Mountains. In 1864 George Mead, the father of William, purchased one hundred acres of wild land on Overlook slope in the mountains, about two miles from the present village of Woodstock, and erected this hotel, which he conducted with the assistance of his son until his death on March 25, 1905. The house is located on Overlook Mountain, two thousand feet above the Hudson, and fifteen hundred feet above the village of Woodstock, and commands a fine view of the mountains and valleys in every
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first setders of Woodstock had the right stuff in them to succeed. After the home-lots were chosen highways were laid out, a grist-mill and saw-mill built, bridges constructed, new inhabitants brought in, and every thing possible was done to make the settlement permanent. A general meeting of the inhabitants was held July 2, 1687, when "John Chandler, Sr., Nathaniel Johnson, Joseph Bugbee, James White, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
town meeting held the 8th day of April, 1782, it was voted 44 to build a Bridge A Crofs Quechee River between Mr. Rufus Carpenters and William Fullers." Here the matter rested till after Woodstock was made the shire town of the county and the court-house built, when a bridge over the river at some point on the Common became a matter of public necessity. In town meeting, therefore, September 4, 1787, it was voted to petition the General Assembly for liberty to lay a land-tax of threepence
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.
BuiltJudge Jonathan Hasbrouck House is built
BuiltChurch of the Holy Transfiguration of Christ-on-the-Mount is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveLeonard Ochtman and Mina Fonda Ochtman at Byrdcliffe
In the archiveMountain laurel2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Woodstock’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 1,317 and 6,823 people in every census since 1820.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Woodstock’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Woodstock post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1829.
Woodstock is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns, #269 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.
7 listings: 4 buildings and 3 historic districts, the Byrdcliffe Historic District, the National Youth Administration Woodstock Resident Work Center and the Vosburg Turning Mill Complex, with 53 contributing buildings. 61 historic buildings in all.
23% of Woodstock’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.6 points), against a typical 27% for a New York town; the median home was built in 1961.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (7), 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.
1914
1919