Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1897.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Arnold’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Arnold is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #464 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Arnold’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 Arnold’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1781.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 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 Arnold’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
Present-day Westmoreland County was part of the hunting reserves of the Iroquois Haudenosaunee. European colonists began to penetrate the area in the 1750s, and circa 1781 Robert McCrea purchased the land on which Arnold is situated. William Jack acquired the property and later passed it on to Wilson Jack. The area around Arnold was first settled in 1852 by Major Andrew Arnold, who grew up in nearby Kittanning.
Passages that mention Arnold, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania1906 · page 564Read the page →
Read the text
the age of thirty-three, veteran of the Spanish- American war ; Annie, wife of Andrew Allen, of New Kensington ; Alargaret, at home, graduate of Duquesne College and clerk in the postofiice ; Thomas, railroad engineer, killed in a wreck October 17, 1905: James, ticket agent at Arnold Station; Mary, at home, graduate of Arnold high school and now a teacher in schools of that place ; Edward, died at the age of six years ; Joseph, student at College of the Holy Ghost, Pittsburg; Francis, at home, graduate of Arnold high school, now leaching in Natrona ; Charles, at home ; Jane, also at home.
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.
Timeline
Arnold, 1781 to 1989
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1781, according to Wikidata. Arnold’s post office opened in 1897, and the census of 1900 counted 1,428 people here.
How does Arnold rank for history?
Arnold is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #464 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. 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.
How old are the homes in Arnold?
31% of Arnold’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1950.
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 (7), the Library of Congress (6), 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 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.
1989
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1989
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2006
