Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: DiscoverHartville · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 74% of U.S. towns · #380 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Lake Township School and the Hartville Hotel. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1901 on, and the census since 1880.
Hartville dates its founding to 1818 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 74% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Hartville is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #380 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age 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 Hartville’s 5.9 sits above most of its state (66% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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 Hartville’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hartville. 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 Hartville.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltLake Township School is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveBrumbaugh mr mrs
Born herePaul Korver is born hereFrom Wikipedia’s history of Hartville.
Hartville was founded by settler John Morehart in 1818 and first platted in 1851. Its name is likely a portmanteau of the surnames of Morehart and fellow settler John Willis. Hartville was incorporated as a village in 1951.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Hartville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Isaac Brumbaugh. A venerable and honored citizen who is now living retired in the attractive Village of Hartville, in Lake Township, is he whose name initiates this paragraph. His active career was one of long and specially successful association with the basic industry of agriculture and prior to establishing his home in Hartville lie had been the owner of an extensive and valuable landed estate in Portage County.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Doctor Rubright was reared practically in the Village of Hartville, and spent a number of years in his father’s hotel and in assisting in his other business. As a boy he received instruction which prepared him for a first-class high school entrance, and he was graduated from the high school at Hartville in 1898. He soon afterward entered the dental department of the Ohio Medical College at Columbus and was graduated D. D. S. in 1901. During his second vacation from college he spent the time as an apprentice in dentistry in the office of Dr. C. 0.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1950s. 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 Hartville’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.
Grew from 135 people in 1880 to 3,329 in 2020, more than tenfold.
8 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hartville’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Hartville’s post office has been open since 1837.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
In 1818, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Hartville’s post office opened in 1837, and the census of 1880 counted 135 people here.
Hartville is more historic than 74% of U.S. towns, #380 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.
Two places: the Lake Township School (listed 1976) and the Hartville Hotel (1980).
13% of Hartville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.8 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1977.
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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.
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