Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #575 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1908 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orange Township is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #575 of 993 in Ohio. Its share of homes from before 1940 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 Orange 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: 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 Orange Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orange 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 Orange Township.
Another post office, Metcalfs, 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Orange Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Orange Township is one of the fifteen townships of Ashland County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,569 at the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,523 in 2010, 2,569 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Orange Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Sage Kellogg removed to Uniontown (now Ashland) in October, 1818. He taught the first school in Orange Township, in the winter of 1818 and 1819, in a log hut then erected about three-fourths of a mile north of the present town of Orange. Mr. Kellogg’s profession was that of a school teacher.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Solomon Urie immigrated to Orange Township in tho spring of 1814. In 1813 he entered two quarters of land — one in Orange Township, the northeast quarter of section 34, and another in Montgomery Township, the northeast quarter of section 4.
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.
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 Orange Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Orange Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Orange Township is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #575 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.
29% of Orange Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±13.0 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (7), 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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