Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Samuel Patterson House · Photo: Generic1139 · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 59% of U.S. towns · #611 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Samuel Patterson House, the Western Division-Pennsylvania Canal and the Western Division of the PA Canal. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1880.
Derry Township dates its founding to 1852 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
More historic than 59% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Derry Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #611 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls 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 Derry Township’s 2.2 sits near the middle of its state (58% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% 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.
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 Derry Township’s history is told.
Peaked at 3,752 in 1950; 2,639 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Derry Township’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Derry Township.
Derry is said to be the site of a 1791 Indian attack on the Mitchell family, who lived two miles east of Latrobe, "on the line of the Ligonier Valley Railroad." A 17-year-old boy was captured and held by the Indians for three years, after which he returned to his home in Derry.
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 archiveDerry Station PA 1900 BEye View
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Derry Township.
1900Latrobe sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Derry 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 Derry Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1852, according to Wikidata. Derry Township’s post office opened in 1823, and the census of 1880 counted 755 people here.
Derry Township is more historic than 59% of U.S. towns, #611 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.
Three places: the Samuel Patterson House (listed 1985), the Western Division-Pennsylvania Canal (1974) and the Western Division of the PA Canal (1982).
19% of Derry Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (5), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.
1900
1900
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