Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns · #804 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1929 on, and the census since 1970.
More historic than 44% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bradford Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #804 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. 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 Bradford Township’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: our sources. 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.
Three 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bradford Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bradford Township is a township in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,836 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 3,034 to 2,841 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Bradford Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
drowning in the river, in 1857, in Bradford Township, Clearfield County. In 1843 he moved into Lawrence Township, this county, and five years later into Bradford Township, settling on the Thomas Holt property. His widow survived a long time, dying at the age of eighty-seven years.
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBradford, from water-works
In the archiveBradford, from Harrisburg Hill, 3 views
In the archiveLone Rock, Rock City Bradford, Pa
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveWorkers in the McKean Oil Refining Company4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bradford 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 Bradford 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 Bradford Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 2,504 and 3,374 people in every census since 1970.
6 censuses, 1970–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bradford Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Bradford Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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.
Bradford Township is more historic than 44% of U.S. towns, #804 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.
19% of Bradford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 Library of Congress (11), 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.
1860
1878
1904
1904
1904
1904
1941
