Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1820.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Adamstown’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Adamstown is more historic than 91% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Adamstown’s overall grade.
Pennsylvania towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Pennsylvania town has 2.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Adamstown’s 9.9 sits above most of its state (77% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 2 historic buildings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1761.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.8 points).
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 →
What stands out about Adamstown’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Adamstown was initially founded on July 4, 1761, by William Addams on the site of a former village of Native Americans, and Addams named the community Addamsburry. The community was incorporated as a borough on April 2, 1850, following the passage of a bill by the Pennsylvania General Assembly that was introduced by Representative Joseph Konigmacher the previous month. That year, the borough's population was 307.
In 1855, a new stage coach route was established from Lancaster to Reading, which included stops in the communities of Adamstown, Reamstown, Ephrata, New Berlin, and Oregon. The fare from Reading to Adamstown was fifty cents.
The Kagerise Store and House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.
Passages that mention Adamstown, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania1883Read the page →
Read the text
Location, Railroad, Indians, Water, etc.— The borough of Adamstown is situated in the northern part of Lancaster County, adjoining Berks County line, ten miles from Reading and twenty-one miles from Lancaster, on the old stage route, laid out in 1772, formerly traveled by Eastern members of Congress to a:id from Washington, D. C.
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.
By decade
Adamstown, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1761, according to Wikidata. Adamstown’s post office opened in 1820, and the census of 1860 counted 432 people here.
How does Adamstown rank for history?
Adamstown is more historic than 91% 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.
What is on the National Register in Adamstown?
One place: the Kagerise Store and House (listed 1988).
How old are the homes in Adamstown?
21% of Adamstown’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1996.
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 (24), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.
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