Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 77% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1885 on and old-book passages.
The Avondale post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1894.
More historic than 77% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Avondale is more historic than 77% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Avondale’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.
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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avondale’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Avondale yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Avondale is a borough in Chester County, in southeastern Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,272 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1828. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 1,265 in 2010, 1,274 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereMark Sullivan is born here
In the archiveAvondale
Born hereFrank Crossin is born here
In the archive[Thomas Eakins's Horse Billy and Two Crowell Children at Avondale, Pennsylvania]
In the archive'First Aid to the Injured' man equipped with Draeger Oxygen Helmet. Avondale Shaft, D.L.W…Passages that mention Avondale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
5, and on Oct. 31, 1879, 10 locomotives were in use. The road was opened to Oxford in 1859, to Rising Sun, Md., 1865, and to River Junction in 1869, having been brought into use to Chads' Ford (soon after to Avondale) previously as the improvement progressed. Resting on a community chiefly agricultural for the supply of capital, without any strong claim for aid from the city, this enterprise had for years the experience common in railroad building about the
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.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Avondale’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Avondale’s post office has been open since 1828.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Avondale post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1894.
Avondale is more historic than 77% 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.
56% of Avondale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±18.7 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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