Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns · #882 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1908 on, and the census since 2000.
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Butler Township is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #882 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 Butler 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.
Four 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Butler 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 Butler Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Butler Township.
Butler Township was formally organized on 20 August 1849 from portions of Menallen Township and Franklin Township, by the Adams County Court of Quarter Sessions.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Butler Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Menallen Meeting-house of the Society of Friends, dates its foundation here to 1888, when the old church at Friend’s Grove, in the rear of the present Dunkard church of Butler Township, was abandoned. The old double-log Friends’ Meeting-house of 1838, was removed in I8S4, to give place to the present brick house. The log house stood just in front of the present buildings just north of their new cemetery opened in 1553. ‘The society’s old cemetery, in Butler Township at Friends’ Groye, contains a number of headstones still.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
for three years in Franklin Township, York County; then in what is now Butler Township, this county, for twelve years; then for three years kept what was known as the “Keystone Hotel,” the property now being owned by John Reeder; then kept store at what is now Center Mills, in Butler Township, and in the spring of 1847 moved to Bendersville, where he engaged in merchandising. In 1859 he sold his business to his son, 8. A. Burkholder, and George Wilson. He then engaged extensively in the nursery business for twelve years, and in 1871 again entered trade by purchasing his son’s interest in the firm of Burkholder & Hoffman. In 1879, he met with some reverses, and closed out his
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 archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Pennsylvania - Adams County - Butler - ED 1-6
In the archiveHigh School
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveThe Diamond3 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 Butler Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 2,552 and 2,678 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Butler Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Butler 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.
Butler Township is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns, #882 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.
15% of Butler Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.9 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 (7), the Library of Congress (8), Wikipedia, 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.
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