Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Yaphank was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1904 on, and old-book passages.
The Yaphank post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Yaphank. 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 Yaphank.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereMary Louise Booth is born here
In the archiveWright (Township)
In the archivePart of Brookhaven, Sufffolk Co. L.I
In the archiveSuffolk County, V. 2, Double Page Plate No. 5 (Map bounded by Coram, Coram Hill, West Yap…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveIndex Map No. 2 of a part of Suffolk County. North Side - Sound Shore, Long Island. Brook…
Born hereFred Hembeck is born hereThe 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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Yaphank.
Captain Robert Robinson came to Yaphank and built his Dutch Colonial house with the building dated at 1726. He was then granted permission to dam the Carmans River to build a mill across the street from his house. The construction of this mill in 1739 was considered the founding date of the Hamlet of Yaphank.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Yaphank, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The southeastern part of what was once the parish of Middletown, locally known as Millville, is now comprised in the village of Yaphank, the name of which is borrowed from a little stream that joins the Connecticut River some four miles below. Yaphank is a village of about three hundred inhabitants, and has recently become conspicuous on account of the county alms-house located here.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
13. This was land upon which most of the village of Yaphank lies. 13. Extending from the east line of the town west to Miller's Place, it was bounded on the south by the Country road and reached north to the sound except where land already appropriated intervened along the north side. This division was completed May 4th 1729, by Hiehard Woodhull and Nathaniel Brewster, surveyors.
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.
4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s 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 Yaphank’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Yaphank post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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.
1873
1902