Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Porter Township was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Its Register listing is the Chambers Road Covered Bridge. Below: old-book passages.
The Porter Township post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Olive Green (1845), Porter (1851) and Peerless (1881), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Porter Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. 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 Porter Township’s 4.0 sits near the middle of its state (61% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Porter Township’s history is told.
Three 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Porter Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Porter Township is one of the eighteen townships of Delaware County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,194.
Its first post office opened in 1851. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,923 to 2,194 (+14%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Porter Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
young, bids fair to attain an enviable position in his profession. The Fowler family are in possession of about 200 acres of valuable improved land, in Porter Township, upon which the Ohio Central Railroad, just being built, has established a depot, the town thus started to be called Fowlerville. Mrs. Fowler has also 160 acres of coal and other lands, in Tuscarawas Co.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
between the 1st of March, 1826, and the 1st of March, 1827. The journal of the County Commissioners, from 1821 to 1831, which contain the order creating Porter Township, was mislaid, but it is quite certain the order was made at the June session of the Commissioners in 1826. It was named after the Hon. Robert Porter, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
between the Ist of March, 1826, and the Ist of March, 1827. The journal of the County Commissioners, from 1821 to 1831, which contain the order creating Porter Township, was mislaid, but it is quite certain the order was made at the June session of the Commissioners in 1826. It was named after the Hon. Robert Porter, of the city of Philadelphia, in the State of
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.
Nobody well known was born in Porter Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Porter Township post office opened in 1851, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Porter Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns. 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 Chambers Road Covered Bridge (listed 1974).
9% of Porter Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.9 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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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