Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Andrew Bossi · CC BY-SA 2.5More historic than 35% of U.S. towns · #904 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 14 old photos and papers and maps from 1902 on.
More historic than 35% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Freedom Township is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #904 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 Freedom 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.
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 Freedom 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 Freedom Township.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Oil Works
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Men working
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Machinery IV
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Machinery V
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Machinery II
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Machinery III
1920Freedom Gas Distillery. Machinery IWikipedia doesn’t have a history of Freedom Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Freedom Township is a township in Blair County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the Altoona, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,005 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 3,458 to 3,002 (-13%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
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 SurveyIn the archiveFreedom Oil Works
In the archiveLittle boyNo 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 Freedom Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Freedom 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.
Freedom Township is more historic than 35% of U.S. towns, #904 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.
14% of Freedom Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.4 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 Library of Congress (14), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
1941
2014
2008
2008
2008
2008