Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 40% of U.S. towns · #756 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Most of South Bloomfield was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2002. Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1870.
South Bloomfield dates its founding to 1803 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1870.
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, South Bloomfield is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #756 of 993 in Ohio. Its age 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 South Bloomfield’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: Wikipedia (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 South Bloomfield’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1880 and 1910, then grew more than tenfold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on South Bloomfield’s Wikipedia page.
South Bloomfield had its own post office from 1828 to 1916. Another post office, Bloomfield, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of South Bloomfield.
The town was originally laid out in 1803. General James Denny was originally contracted to survey the area, embracing 40 acres and divided into 80 lots. The founding members in the area had initially hoped that this would eventually be the county seat, but time and politics worked against this idea.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention South Bloomfield, cut from the printed page as they were published.
books having been opened on July 22nd, for subscriptions to the stock of this road at the office of John Ludwig, in Circleville and of John Cochran, in South Bloomfield. In the act of incorporation, commissioners were named from the several counties involved.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Being a Methodist in their former home, Groom sought other Methodists in the area. Nine miles south of the present town of South Bloomfield he found a settler by the name of Bishop, who had also been a Methodist in Virginia. The two friends set out one Sunday to follow a report of kindred souls in the To-Be-Town (Toby Town, now known as Royalton). There they met two men, Broad Cole and Jeremiah Williams. They too were Methodists, and were very properly going to a class meeting and took Groom
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The first store in South Bloomfield was opened soon after 1 804 by Hugh Creighton, an early justice of the peace, who also kept a tavern here in the year mentioned. William and John Bradshaw started the second store, in which the first postoffice was kept. It was established about 1810 and it is thought that William Bradshaw was the first postmaster.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Probably due to the Mennonite influence among the early United Brethren, there was an aversion to bells and keeping membership rolls. It was 1915 when a bell tower was built and a bell placed using trusses from the South Bloomfield bridge washing out in the flood of 1913 and ropes to slide it into place in the tower. A Ladies Aid was organized in May of 1916 and continued until 1989.
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 SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of South Bloomfield. 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 South Bloomfield.
Nobody well known was born in South Bloomfield itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1803, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. South Bloomfield’s post office opened in 1815, and the census of 1870 counted 283 people here.
South Bloomfield is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns, #756 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% of South Bloomfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 2002.
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 (12), Wikipedia, 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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