Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nyttend · Public domainMore historic than 88% of U.S. towns · #176 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1908 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, German Township is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #176 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 German Township’s 54.8 sits above most of its state (89% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 48 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% 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 German Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Brownrun, 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 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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of German Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
German Township is one of the nine townships of Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 8,747.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 8,429 to 8,747 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention German Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
J acob Beard and Daniel Gunckel, Sr. , as proprietors, laid out the town of Sunbury, German Township, in March, 1825, and had the first sale of lots or. the 15th of April. It was at the “cross-roads,” leading to Dayton, Cincinnati and Lebanon, and there were three grist-mills, six saw-mills and a carding machine within a mile and a half of the town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
German Township included all of the territory west of the Miami River the State line, parallel to and two or three miles south of the present southei boundary of Miami County. On the 10th day of June, 1805, the records rea “German Township, bounded at present by the Miami River on the oast, Butl County on the south, the line east of third range on the west, and the nor’ side of first tier of sections in south side of third township, fifth range, ai fourth township, foiu’th range, as the north boundary line, elections to be he at Philip Gunckel’s Mill, on Twin Creek.” At a session of the County Cod
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 SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of German 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 German Township.
Nobody well known was born in German Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
German Township is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #176 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.
6 listings: 1 building, among them the Koehne-Poast Farm (listed 1977, the first). 48 historic buildings in all.
17% of German Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.6 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1970.
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), 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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