Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Petersburg Tollhouse. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1974 on, and the census since 1920.
Addison dates its founding to 1798 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1920.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 370 in 1970; 166 people lived here in 2020.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Addison’s Wikipedia page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereChester Bidwell Darrall is born here
In the archiveMap of Petersburg, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, from 1860 Somerset County Map by Edward…
In the archiveAddison, PA, built 1814, N. HY. Rates of Toll on the Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Addison.
Peter Augustine laid out the town of Petersburg, which later became Addison, in 1818. Henry Stuller built the first house here in 1820, the same year in which John Brown built a tavern. A schoolhouse was constructed about 1832, and a foundry was begun by Thomas & Nathan Cooper in 1844.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Addison. 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 Addison.
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 Addison’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.
Addison’s post office has been open since 1832.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Addison’s history is told.
In 1798, according to Wikidata. Addison’s post office opened in 1832, and the census of 1920 counted 190 people here.
One place: the Petersburg Tollhouse (listed 1979).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (4), 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), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.
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