Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns · #463 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1986 on, and the census since 1880.
Cleves dates its founding to 1818 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 66% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cleves is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #463 of 993 in Ohio. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Cleves’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cleves’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereLes Backman is born here
Born hereBenjamin W. Chidlaw is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWriters, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cleves.
The village was founded in 1818. It is named for John Cleves Symmes who lived here, laid out the original town site, and sold lots.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Cleves, cut from the printed page as they were published.
we shall presently see more fully, that the great "city of Miami" to be was laid out where he first landed, from the Ohio river at North Bend nearly to the Great Miami at the present village of Cleves. Captain Kearsey had received orders, probably from General Harmar, simply to accompany the emigrants to their destination, wherever that might prove to be, and
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
This township was among the earliest settled in the county. Here it was that John Cleves Symmes projected the village of South Bend. It was laid out in 1789, as shown by the following interesting extract from a letter written by Judge Symmes Digitized by Google
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.![which we find the following, made in the latter year: On the twentieth [ot August], seventeen days after the treaty [of Greenville], Governor St. Clair, General Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, and Israel Ludlow contracted with John Cleves Symmes for the purchase and settlement of the seventh and eighth…](https://images.townratings.com/story/13307/bk-742fb8f9d0de9d99-l.jpg)
which we find the following, made in the latter year: On the twentieth [ot August], seventeen days after the treaty [of Greenville], Governor St. Clair, General Wilkinson, Jonathan Dayton, and Israel Ludlow contracted with John Cleves Symmes for the purchase and settlement of the seventh and eighth ranges, between Mad River and Little Miami. One settlement was to be at the mouth of Mad River, one on the Little Miami in the seventh range, and one on Mad River above the mouth.
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cleves.
1986Cincinnati sheet · 1:100,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Cleves.
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 Cleves’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 836 people in 1880 to 3,414 in 2020, 4 times over.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cleves’ Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1818, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Cleves’ post office opened in 1819, and the census of 1880 counted 836 people here.
Cleves is more historic than 66% of U.S. towns, #463 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.
26% of Cleves’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.5 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1972.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
Date?
2015
2004