Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns · #583 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 7 buildings. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1910.
University Heights first appears in the census in 1910.
More historic than 56% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, University Heights is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #583 of 993 in Ohio. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds 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 University Heights’ 5.2 sits near the middle of its state (65% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 University Heights’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1920, then grew more than tenfold.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on University Heights’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of University Heights.
Originally part of the Warrensville Township, University Heights was incorporated as Idlewood Village in 1908. It adopted its present name in the mid-1920s, when John Carroll University was anticipated to move into the area. John Carroll attracted massive growth and University Heights soon became recognized as a city in 1940.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of University Heights. 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 University Heights.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The University Heights post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
University Heights is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #583 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 Carroll, John, University North Quad Historic District (listed 2013).
27% of University Heights’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1949.
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 (1), Wikidata (1), 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2014
