Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns · #346 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
Most of Westerville was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1860.
The Westerville post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1858. Two smaller post offices, Blendon Institute (1841) and Central College (1842), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 78% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Westerville is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #346 of 993 in Ohio. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Westerville’s 32.1 sits above most of its state (85% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 124 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (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 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.
Westerville’s post office has been open since 1840. Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Westerville.
Cultures have inhabited the Westerville area for several millennia. Paleo-Indians and their successor cultures inhabited the area between Big Walnut Creek and Alum Creek. The Wyandotte were the primary inhabitants by the time Europeans arrived, living along Alum Creek. They were forced out of Ohio in 1843.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Westerville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
sand five hundred and seventy-five; in 1900, it had a population, exclusive of Westerville, of two thousand three hundred and sixty; the estimate for 1908, exclusive of Westerville, is two thousand five hundred and eighty-nine. The population of Westerville in 1858 was two hundred and seventy-five; in 1900, one thousand four hundred and sixty-two, estimated in 1908, one thousand six hundred and twenty-one.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In August, 1868, a preliminary meeting, looking to the formation of a medical society in central Ohio, was held in the office of Dr. John McClurg, of Westerville, by Drs. Landon, Page, Neil, Beverly, Durant, Andrus, Garen, McClurg and that permanent organization was affected at Westerville, June 14, 1869, at which time the following officers were elected: President, Dr.
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.
BuiltAlkire House is built
In the archive1856 Property ownership plat map of Westerville, Blendon Township, Franklin County, Ohio
In the archiveHandsome Homes of Columbus, Ohio
In the archiveJames Alexander Miles portrait
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveAlum Creek Bridge
In the archiveReturn of W. E. "Pusseyfoot" Johnson to Westerville from London, England, April 24, 1920
Born hereLauren Schmidt Hissrich is born here
Born hereRobert Cash is born here5 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Westerville.
1902Westerville sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Westerville.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1894Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Westerville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 668 people in 1860 to 39,190 in 2020, more than tenfold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Westerville’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Westerville post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1858.
Westerville is more historic than 78% of U.S. towns, #346 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.
15 listings: 13 buildings, among them the Benjamin Hanby House (listed 1970, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Temperance Row Historic District and the Uptown Westerville Historic District, with 100 contributing buildings. 124 historic buildings in all.
7% of Westerville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.6 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1982.
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), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (9), the National Register of Historic Places (15), 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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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