Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 943 buildings. Below: maps from 1961 on and old-book passages.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Elizabeth Township is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns. All 2 inputs put Elizabeth Township near the top nationally; its National Register listings ranks highest.
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 Elizabeth Township’s 5,164 sits above most of its state (100% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 959 historic buildings outnumber those of 99% 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 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Elizabeth 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Elizabeth Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Elizabeth Township is one of the twelve townships of Miami County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,686 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,648 to 1,686 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Elizabeth Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Elizabeth Township in Miami County, and Pike Township in Clarke County, adjoining each other, are drained by Indian Creek and Honey Creek, which head within a short distance of each other, the first in Brown Township of Miami County, and the latter in Jackson Township of Champaign County. Both of them are formed
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Alcony. Having no incorporated town, Elizabeth Township is in this particiflar a little behind some of her neighbors. The village of Alcony, or Miami City, as it is sometimes called, is the only settlement within her area. Can-, Hart and Vandeveer laid it out in 1858, and Philip Dick erected the first house. The village has
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Charles Chaffee .spent his earlier life near Princeton, New Jersey, and then came to Ohio with his brother, locating on the A. E. Barnes farm in Elizabeth Township. He made his home there and secured work by the month on neighboring farms, later worked for John Dye, of Elizabeth Township, after which he went to White County,
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.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Elizabeth Township.
1961Christiansburg sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Elizabeth Township.
Nobody well known was born in Elizabeth Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Elizabeth Township is among the most historic 1% 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.
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Elizabeth Sheets Saunders Farm (listed 1976, the first), and 1 historic district, the Elizabeth Township Rural Historic District, with 943 contributing buildings. 959 historic buildings in all.
43% of Elizabeth Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.0 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1948.
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.
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