Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns. What drives it
6 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 20 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1909 on.
The Albany Township post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, Fetherolffsville (1832), Albany (1845) and Mountain (1866), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 96% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Albany Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age lowest.
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 Albany Township’s 132 sits above most of its state (90% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 23 historic buildings outnumber those of 80% 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.
Six 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Albany Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Albany 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 Albany Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Albany Township.
A post office called Albany was established in 1845, and remained in operation until 1953. The community took its name from Albany Township.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltBridge in Albany Township is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Albany Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Albany Township post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Albany Township is more historic than 96% 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.
6 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Daniel Berk Log House (listed 1977, the first), 2 historic districts, the Trexler Historic District and the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary District, with 20 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 23 historic buildings in all.
47% of Albany Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania 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 National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
