Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns · #610 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: 3 old photos and papers and maps from 1907 on.
The Lee Township post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 54% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lee Township is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #610 of 993 in Ohio. Its age 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 Lee Township’s 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: the first post office (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 Lee Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lee 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 Lee Township.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lee Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Lee Township is one of the fourteen townships of Athens County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 2,837 people in the township.
Its first post office opened in 1827. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 2,729 to 2,837 (+4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to 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 Lee Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Lee Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lee Township post office opened in 1827, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lee Township is more historic than 54% of U.S. towns, #610 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.
14% of Lee Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1986.
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), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps 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
2015
