Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 39% of U.S. towns · #761 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Most of Mount Orab was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. Its Register listing is the Mount Orab Station. Below: maps from 1917 on and the census since 1880.
Mount Orab dates its founding to 1850 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 39% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mount Orab is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #761 of 993 in Ohio. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age 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 Mount Orab’s 2.0 sits near the middle of its state (52% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Mount Orab’s history is told.
Mount Orab’s post office has been open since 1854. Another post office, Bardwell, 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 Mount Orab. 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 Mount Orab.
From Wikipedia’s history of Mount Orab.
Mount Orab was laid out by Daniel Keether on September 3, 1850. The village's name most likely is derived from Mount Horeb, a place in the Hebrew Bible.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
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 SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Grew from 242 people in 1880 to 4,347 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mount Orab’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Mount Orab itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1850, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Mount Orab’s post office opened in 1854, and the census of 1880 counted 242 people here.
Mount Orab is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns, #761 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.
One place: the Mount Orab Station (listed 1975).
8% of Mount Orab’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.
