Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1910 on, and the census since 1820.
Adelphi dates its founding to 1804 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1820.
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 Adelphi’s history is told.
Peaked at 516 in 1900; 322 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Adelphi’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Adelphi. 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 Adelphi.
From Wikipedia’s history of Adelphi.
Adelphi was laid out in 1804 by two brothers, and named after the Greek word for "brothers". Adelphi was incorporated as a village in 1838.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Adelphi, cut from the printed page as they were published.
He had an ambition to place his home town of Adelphi in touch with the surrounding world by a railroad. He supplied most of the means and the energy toward building a railroad from Kingston to Adelphi. Principally due to his advanced age at the time this enterprise was undertaken, it proved to be unfortunate, and his fine estate was swept away. The railroad was operated for about fourteen years and was then abandoned, and since then Adelphi has been isolated so
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
way in the world at an early age. He attended both the parochial and public schools of Chillicothe, and at the age of fifteen entered the office of the old Advertiser to learn the trade of printer. He remained in that office until 1883, and then removed his family to Adelphi and bought out the Adelphi Border News, a weekly paper which had been founded in 1879. Mr. Egan confesses to many hard struggles and ups and downs in his early career as a newspaper man. He finally gave to Adelphi a paper of which that community is proud. It has a wide
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 SurveyNo 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 Adelphi’s page.
Retake this view · +15Adelphi’s post office has been open since 1808.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1804, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Adelphi’s post office opened in 1808, and the census of 1820 counted 132 people here.
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 (7), the Library of Congress (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.
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