Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 46% of U.S. towns · #704 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Most of Plain Township was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. Below: maps from 1901 on and the census since 1880.
More historic than 46% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Plain Township is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #704 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 Plain Township’s 2.2 sits near the middle of its state (53% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 12 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% 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.
Two other post offices 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Plain Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Plain 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 Plain Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Plain Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Plain Township is one of the seventeen townships of Stark County, Ohio, United States. The population was 53,477 at the 2020 census, and was estimated at 53,408 in 2024.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 52,540 in 2010, 53,477 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Plain Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Village op New Berlin The Village of New Berlin is located in Plain Township, five miles north of the City of Canton. It was incorporated November 21, 1905, has a population of 1,150 and is steadily and rapidly growing in size and improving in the character of residences being erected. There have been quite a number of substantial modern homes built in New Berlin in the last five years. In 1913 waterworks and sanitary sewer systems were installed. The streets are lighted by electricity and the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
paragraph has well maintained the ancestral prestige, both as a successful and enterprising farmer and as a citizen of steadfast purpose and inflexible integrity. He is one of the representative agriculturists and stockgrowers of Plain Township, within the borders of which lie has always maintained his home, and his present well improved home lies contiguous to' the Village of New Berlin.
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.
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.
Between 2,540 and 60,900 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Plain Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Plain Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Plain Township is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #704 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.
4 listings: 1 building, among them the Jacob H. Bair House (listed 1978, the first). 12 historic buildings in all.
5% of Plain Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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