Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1911 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 89% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Washington Township is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns. 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 Washington Township’s 7.0 sits above most of its state (69% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Washington Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Washington 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 Washington Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Washington Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Washington Township is one of the twelve townships of Miami County, Ohio, United States. The 2020 census found 1,503 people in the township.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,576 to 1,503 (-5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Washington Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Washington Township is particularly noted as one of the most celebrated of the Indian locations in the Northwestern Territory. Here was the last home of the red man in the county, and here were the earliest white settlements. The Shawanesc villages, known in the early history of the West as the Twighteewee Towns, celebrated in the early border warfare, and where prisoners were generally brought when captured by these Indians, in their raids on the white settlements in Kentucky and Western Virginia, were located about two miles higher up the Miami lliver than the site of the present city of Piqua, at what is usually called
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Washington Township came into existence. Prior to this time (1814) several settlements had been made within its present limits. One Job Gard, who had been a soldier in Wayne's army, taking note of this particular region when the army passed north to punish the Indians on the Manmee in 1794, returned after the cam-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Washington Township was organized with its present limits in 1814, but several years before that time a settlement and village were commenced on the present site of Piqua. A man named Job Gard, who accompanied Wayne’s arm}T to Greenville in the capacity of a sutler, returned after a time to the old fort at Upper Piqua, and remained there until it was broken up and the works destroyed.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Washington Township, though the smallest in area, is the most populous division of the county. It is named for General Washington and justly so since to the "first great American" we owe much concerning the opening of the Miami country.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Washington Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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 Washington Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Washington Township is more historic than 89% 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 Lockington Locks Historical Area (listed 1969).
39% of Washington Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±17.7 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1963.
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), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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