Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 86% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Beechdale Bridge. Below: maps from 1923 on and the census since 1970.
More historic than 86% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Brothersvalley Township is more historic than 86% of U.S. towns. All 2 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings 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 Brothersvalley Township’s 4.9 sits above most of its state (67% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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.
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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Brothersvalley Township’s history is told.
Peaked at 4,184 in 2000; 2,377 people lived here in 2020.
6 censuses, 1970–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Brothersvalley Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Brothersvalley Township.
Brothersvalley Township was incorporated in 1771 and its largest borough, Berlin, laid out in 1784. The area was settled by immigrants, mostly from Germany, and became a hotbed of the Whiskey Rebellion.
The Beechdale Bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
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.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brothersvalley 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 Brothersvalley Township.
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 Brothersvalley Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Brothersvalley Township is more historic than 86% 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.
One place: the Beechdale Bridge (listed 1980).
32% of Brothersvalley Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.1 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (1), 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.
