Founding year: the first Brewster post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Brewster’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brewster is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Brewster’s overall grade.
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 Brewster’s 4.8 sits near the middle of its state (63% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Brewster’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A post office called Brewster has been in operation since 1910.
Brewster is the location of the corporate headquarters and shops of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway, both the historic company and the current regional railroad. The WLE began producing locomotives at its Brewster shops in 1910, and boasted one of the finest steam locomotive producing facilities in the country. Over the years, the WLE built and rolled boilers and erected fifty of their own steam engines, a feat never tried by many larger and more famous railroads. The Wheeling and Lake Erie Brewster Shops continue to perform contract repairs, upgrades and fabrication of locomotives and freight cars to this day.
Passages that mention Brewster, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A standard history of Stark County, Ohio1916 · page 546Read the page →
Read the text
some of the best enterprise and reliable methods connected with real estate. Before becoming a partner of Mr. Pontius, Mr. Barry had opened an addition in Canton. The firm of The Barry-Pontius Company founded the railroad town of Brewster, Ohio, where are located the shops and yards of the Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway. They also platted additions to New Berlin, Louisville, and Canton, while Mr.
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.
Timeline
Brewster, 1910 to 1914
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Brewster post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Brewster rank for history?
Brewster is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. 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.
What is on the National Register in Brewster?
One place: the Brewster Railroad YMCA/Wandle House (listed 1985).
How old are the homes in Brewster?
30% of Brewster’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1958.
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 (6), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (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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