Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns · #184 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Nurre-Royston House. Below: maps from 1914 on and the census since 1880.
St. Bernard dates its founding to 1851 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 88% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, St. Bernard is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #184 of 993 in Ohio. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 St. Bernard’s 5.0 sits near the middle of its state (64% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% 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 St. Bernard’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).
Peaked at 7,487 in 1930; 4,070 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on St. Bernard’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of St. Bernard.
St. Bernard was laid out in 1851 at the intersection of Main Street (now Vine Street, Cincinnati), the Miami and Erie Canal, and the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway. The town was originally built up chiefly by Germans.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention St. Bernard, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The incorporated village of St. Bernard includes the town of that name and the adjoining village of Ludlow Grove. St. Bernard was laid out in 1850 by Joseph Kleine and J. B. Schroder, to whose subdivision those of Stephen Kemper, Lawrence Schroder, H. J. Witte, and El wood Alkemeyer have since been added. Ludlow Grove was platted by Brewster, Barton & Foltz, John T. Wright, and Noah Bable.
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.
Born hereEd Sicking is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Bernard. 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 St. Bernard.
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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1851, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. St. Bernard’s post office opened in 1870, and the census of 1880 counted 1,022 people here.
St. Bernard is more historic than 88% of U.S. towns, #184 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.
One place: the Nurre-Royston House (listed 2009).
33% of St. Bernard’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.8 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1955.
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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
2015
2012
2010
2008
2006
2004
