Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Wdzinc · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 40% of U.S. towns · #755 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Most of Norwich Township was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1901 on.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Norwich Township is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #755 of 993 in Ohio. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Norwich Township’s 2.1 sits near the middle of its state (53% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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 Norwich Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Norwich 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 Norwich Township.
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 Norwich Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Norwich Township is one of the seventeen townships of Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 37,900 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 31,807 to 37,900 (+19%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1890s. 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 Norwich Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Norwich Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Norwich Township is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #755 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.
7 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Samuel Davis House (listed 1974, the first). 8 historic buildings in all.
3% of Norwich Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.1 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1993.
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 (5), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.
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