Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 58% of U.S. towns · #553 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Rock Mill Covered Bridge and the Rock Mill. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1925 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 58% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bloom Township is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #553 of 993 in Ohio. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
Ohio towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Ohio town has 2.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bloom Township’s 1.9 sits near the middle of its state (52% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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.
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 Bloom Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bloom Township. 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 Bloom Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bloom Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bloom Township is one of the thirteen townships of Fairfield County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 10,159.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 8,466 to 10,159 (+20%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Bloom Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
LOCKVILLE Lockville was laid out in the extreme northern part of Bloom Township shortly after the building of the Ohio Canal. It was named from the number of locks at this place. It was of some importance when the canal was used as a thoroughfare but now is a collection of houses only.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
charge came in August, 1864, when he returned to Fairfield County. He then became proprietor of Spring Grove nursery located in Bloom Township, which he owned and managed untl 1874, this being the first nursery in Central Ohio, his father having established it in 1845 and conducted it until his son, Benjamin F., became proprietor.
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 SurveyThe 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.
Bloom Township is more historic than 58% of U.S. towns, #553 of 993 in Ohio. 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.
Two places: the Rock Mill Covered Bridge (listed 1976) and the Rock Mill (1990).
12% of Bloom Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1992.
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 (3), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
Date?
2020
2015
