Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 19% of U.S. towns · #1,007 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Most of Franklin Township was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1908 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 19% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Franklin Township is more historic than 19% of U.S. towns, #1,007 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 Franklin 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Franklin Township’s history is told.
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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Franklin 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 Franklin Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Franklin Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Franklin Township is a township in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,596 at the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 2,620 in 2010, 2,598 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Franklin Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Between 1800 and 1833, the settlement in Franklin Township was increased by a number of families which subsequently became very important, and among these may be mentioned the McClures, Jonses, Kirkpatricks and Riddles. In 1799, came Adam Albert, who may be called one of the pioneers of the Lutheran faith in Butler County, and in the same year came Henry Shaffer, who was the first orchardist of the settlement, planting apple séeds from which have been developed the fine fruit of this section.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
ship were John McCandless and Aaron Moore. In 1796, a colony of sixty persons settled in the adjacent township of Center, but in the year before this, McCandless and Moore had selected homes in the wilderness of Franklin Township, to the east. Other pioneers soon joined them, some coming from the Center Township settlement, and among the early names which appear in connection with civilizing enterprises may be noted those of James, George, William and Garrett Moore, Lewis Wilson, William McCandless (1st and 2nd), Rob-
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 archiveScene on the Allegheny
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveWoodwork, checkerboard table for Y.M.C.A2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s 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 Franklin Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Franklin Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Franklin Township is more historic than 19% of U.S. towns, #1,007 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.
5% of Franklin Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.9 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (3), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
1905
2015
2010
