Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns · #603 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Gass House, the Brotherton Farm and the Jacob and Juliana Middlekauff House. Most of Guilford Township was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: maps from 1902 on and old-book passages.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Guilford Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #603 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Guilford Township’s 5.4 sits above most of its state (69% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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.
Five 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 Guilford Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Guilford 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 Guilford Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Guilford Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Guilford is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,923 at the 2020 census.
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 14,531 in 2010, 14,627 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Guilford Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Our subject was educated in the schools of Guilford Township, and when eighteen years old commenced working with his father at the blacksmithing business. In 1865 he enlisted in Company L, Twenty-first Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, and served until the close of the war; was mustered out at Lynchburg, and discharged at Harrisburg, Penn., in July, 1865. On his return to civil life he resumed his former occupation with his father until 1876, since which time he has successfully conducted the business alone. Mr.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Our subject was educated in the schools of Guilford Township, and when eighteen years old commenced working with his father at the blacksmithing business. In 1865 he enlisted in Company L, Twenty-first Pennsylvania Tidus teer Infantry, and served until the close of the war; wasmustered out at Lynchburg, and discharged at Harrisburg, Penn., in July, 1865. On his return to civil life he resumed his former occupation with his father until 1876, ‘since which time he has successfully conducted the business alone. Mr.
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.
BuiltBrotherton Farm is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The 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.
Nobody well known was born in Guilford Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Guilford Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #603 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 Gass House (listed 1977), the Brotherton Farm (1979) and the Jacob and Juliana Middlekauff House (2017).
8% of Guilford Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1982.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (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.
