Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns · #289 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
4 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 163 buildings between them. Below: maps from 1908 on and the census since 2000.
More historic than 82% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Harris Township is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #289 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 Harris Township’s 284 sits above most of its state (92% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 169 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% 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 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Harris Township’s history is told.
Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Harris Township.
Harris Township was incorporated in 1835 from parts of Ferguson, Spring, and Potter townships. Harris was originally home to the Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania when it was founded in 1855. The communities of Lemont, Houserville, Oak Hall, and Rock Forges were all once part of Harris Township before College Township was established in 1875.
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.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Harris 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 Harris Township.
Between 4,657 and 5,913 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Harris Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Harris Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Harris Township is more historic than 82% of U.S. towns, #289 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.
4 listings: 2 buildings, among them the Hill House (listed 1977, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Boalsburg Historic District and the Linden Hall Historic District, with 163 contributing buildings. 169 historic buildings in all.
11% of Harris Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 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 (4), 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.
