Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Shuvaev · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 77% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1860.
Cressona dates its founding to 1847 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
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, Cressona 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 Cressona’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: 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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cressona. 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 Cressona.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cressona.
Until the Mine Hill Road was built in Cressona, the borough remained mostly wilderness, with some minor agricultural areas. In 1831, the Mine Hill and Schuylkill Railroad was completed, and the tracks went through Cressona. The borough was historically called West Haven, but the name was changed to Cressona. The borough was incorporated on February 2, 1857.
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 archiveEngine House at Cressona, Mine Hill R.R
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveConrail 7567 and 7576 (both GP10s) at Cressona, Pennsylvania in 1980Passages that mention Cressona, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Services were held in the school house adjoining the cemetery, in Beaver Valley, two miles from Cressona, at an early date. This was the first cemetery in that vicinity until the New Jerusalem, near the almshouse, was laid out.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He was employed as weighmaster for the Reading Company, at Cressona, and removed later to Philadelphia, where he was engaged as clerk in the Reading Company offices at the Terminal and where he died, being interred in Cressona.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
into the mercantile business, and at Schuylkill Haven he carried on a hardware business for six years, doing very well in that line. In 1853, in partnership with his sons, John and Luther, he established the foundry and machine shop at Cressona (then known as West Haven), and continued his connection therewith until 1870, in which year he returned to Schuylkill Haven. There he was subsequently engaged in merchandising until his death, which occurred May I, 1876. Air. Keefer was a prosperous business man, and his energetic disposition and public spirit carried him into other activities as well. He was
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.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1980s. 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 Cressona’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 876 and 1,946 people in every census since 1860.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cressona’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 1847, according to Wikidata. Cressona’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 1860 counted 876 people here.
Cressona 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.
52% of Cressona’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 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 (14), 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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