Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns · #54 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register. Below: maps from 1909 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 95% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Reading Township is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #54 of 993 in Ohio. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 lowest.
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 Reading Township’s 167 sits above most of its state (96% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 73 historic buildings outnumber those of 87% 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 Reading 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Reading 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 Reading Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Reading Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Reading Township is one of the fourteen townships of Perry County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 4,358 people in the township.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 4,370 in 2010, 4,358 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Reading Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
New Reading, in Reading Township, is in reality the oldest town in the county. It was not laid out until 1805 and thereby lost its distinction of official priority for Hanover was platted by Jacob Ditto in 1804. Its life was short. (Dne of the first acts of the Common Pleas Court, upon the organization of the county, was the annulment of the Hanover town plat. New Readinowas originally called Obermeyersettle, or, in Eng-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
definitely known. It is not probable that there were any before the year 1800. In 1801, however, we know positively, of several. A man by the name of George Arnold had entered some land in Reading Township, where the town of New Reading now is. He did not settle on the land, but sold it to Christian Binckley, the great-grandfather of Capt. T. D. Binckley, present Representative from this county. He thus became the
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyThe 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 Reading Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Reading Township is more historic than 95% of U.S. towns, #54 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.
5 listings: 2 buildings and 1 structure. 73 historic buildings in all.
24% of Reading Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1983.
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 (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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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