Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns · #22 of 993 in Ohio. What drives it
49 places in town are on the National Register, among them six historic districts with 438 buildings between them. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1820.
Youngstown dates its founding to 1796 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1820.
More historic than 98% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Youngstown is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #22 of 993 in Ohio. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age 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 Youngstown’s 81.2 sits above most of its state (92% of Ohio towns have fewer) while its 482 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Youngstown’s post office has been open since 1801. Nine 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 Youngstown.
Youngstown was named for New York native John Young, who surveyed the area in 1796 and settled there soon afterward. On February 9, 1797, Young purchased the township of 15,560 acres (6,300 ha) from the Western Reserve Land Company for $16,085. The 1797 establishment of Youngstown was officially recorded on August 19, 1802.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Youngstown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The county court of Trumbull County which assembled at Warren on August 25, 1800, divided all Trumbull County east of the Cuyahoga River into eight civil townships. The civil township of Youngstown embraced the townships now known as Poland, Boardman, Canfield, Ellsworth, Austintown, Youngstown, Coitsville and Jackson, in Mahoning County, and Hubbard and Liberty in Trumbull County. Both the civil township of Youngstown and the surveyed township of Youngstown were well represented in the first county court of quarter
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Youngstown, in short, had attained a ripe age, and yet it was but a drowsy village of less than one thousand inhabitants; the township numbered less than two thousand residents all told. Gradually the adjoining townships that had been included at first in the civil township of Youngstown for governmental purposes were organized separately, and the civil township of Youngstown became identical with the surveyed township that John Young had bought. Yet in 1840 the Village of Youngstown was merely the center of the township, and not a sepa-
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.
In the archiveYoungstown
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltMahoning County Courthouse is built
BuiltMahoning National Bank Building is built
In the archiveOhio Works of the Carnegie Steel CoBuiltButler Institute Of American Art is built
In the archiveAerial view
BuiltCentral Tower Building is built
Born hereArthur Laffer is born here
Born hereElizabeth Hartman is born here
Born hereEd O'Neill is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Youngstown. 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 Youngstown.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 14Sanborn 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 Youngstown’s page.
Retake this view · +15Peaked at 170,002 in 1930; 60,068 people lived here in 2020.
21 censuses, 1820–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Youngstown’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.
In 1796, according to Wikidata. Youngstown’s post office opened in 1801, and the census of 1820 counted 273 people here.
Youngstown is more historic than 98% of U.S. towns, #22 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.
49 listings: 42 buildings, among them the Lanterman Mill (listed 1974, the first), 6 historic districts with 438 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 482 historic buildings in all.
39% of Youngstown’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.7 points), against a typical 15% for an Ohio town; the median home was built in 1950.
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 the Library of Congress (11), Wikidata (5), the National Register of Historic Places (49), 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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1916![Militia dispersing mobs, E. Youngstown, O[hio], 1-8-16](https://images.townratings.com/story/13714/e526519d0bd66360b262-s.jpg)
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