Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Photo by User:AudeVivere. · CC BY-SA 2.5More historic than 96% of U.S. towns · #101 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Bedford Springs Hotel Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and three historic districts with 427 buildings between them. Below: 14 old photos and papers, maps from 1971 on, and the census since 1800.
Bedford Township dates its founding to 1751 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.
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, Bedford Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #101 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Bedford Township’s 843 sits above most of its state (97% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 430 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Seven 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Bedford Township.
The area around Bedford was inhabited by European traders during the late 1740s and early 1750s. Permanent settlers, however, did not arrive until after Forbes Road was constructed in 1758 to support the Forbes Expedition's campaign against Fort Duquesne.
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.
In the archiveBedford fraser tavern
In the archiveFort Bedford Inn
In the archiveToll gate
In the archiveKing's garageBuiltCoffee Pot, The is built
In the archiveBennett's Motor Court, U.S. Highway 220... At entrance to Pennsylvania Turnpike... Bedfor…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey5 decades in the archive, from the 1750s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bedford 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 Bedford Township.
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 Bedford Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 257 and 3,696 people in every census since 1800.
23 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bedford Township’s Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1751, according to Wikidata. Bedford Township’s post office opened in 1870, and the census of 1800 counted 257 people here.
Bedford Township is more historic than 96% of U.S. towns, #101 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.
5 listings: 2 buildings and 3 historic districts, the Bedford Springs Hotel Historic District, the Bedford County Alms House and the Dutch Corner Historic Agricultural District, with 427 contributing buildings. 430 historic buildings in all.
17% of Bedford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1977.
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), the Library of Congress (8), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, 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.
1890
1890
1890
1891
1900
1900
1904
c. 1930
c. 1930