Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Bwsmith84 · CC BY 3.0More historic than 47% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Root Covered Bridge. Most of Decatur Township was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1904 on.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Decatur Township is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls 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 Decatur Township’s 6.9 sits above most of its state (69% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Decatur Township’s history is told.
Two 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Decatur 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 Decatur Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Decatur Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Decatur Township is one of the twenty-two townships of Washington County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,342 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,303 to 1,342 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltRoot Covered Bridge is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveTownship maps of Athens County, Ohio, circa 1940 - DPLA - e7e21162aac7601e425d0ae14503b43…One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. 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 Decatur Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Decatur Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Decatur Township is more historic than 47% 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.
One place: the Root Covered Bridge (listed 1975).
6% of Decatur Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.2 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1988.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1940
1947