Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns · #11 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 521 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1800.
Huntingdon dates its founding to 1767 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1800.
Among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Huntingdon is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #11 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. All 3 inputs put Huntingdon near the top nationally; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest.
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 Huntingdon’s 757 sits above most of its state (96% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 522 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% 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.
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.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1884Sheet 1 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Huntingdon.
The original inhabitants of Huntingdon and neighboring counties were the Susquehannock. Through a combination of ongoing war with other indigenous nations, such as the Haudenosaunee, disease brought by Europeans, and violence from settlers, the Susquehannock are currently thought to have been entirely wiped out or subsumed by other tribes.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Huntingdon, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Blair and John Patton as sureties. The following is an extract copy, viz: “Know all men by these presents that we, John Blair, of the Town of Huntingdon, Thomas Blair, of the Township of Allegheny, and John Patton, Esq., of the Town of Huntingdon, are held and firmly bound unto Benjamin Elliot, Esq., Lodwick Sell, George Ashman, William McAlevy, Andrew Henderson and Richard Smith, Esquire, Trustees
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Pulpit Rocks, and led to the settlements on the river above Petersburg, was known in 1788 as Graffius’ road, and one in Plank Cabin Valley was called, as early as 1766, '‘Thompson’s Road.” A public road from Huntingdon to Three Springs, via. Cassville, was laid out about 1790; from McCormick’s mill to Huntingdon, surveyed in November of the same year; from Minteer’s Gap to the Warm Springs, May, 1791; and that from the Three Springs,
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The red shales and sandstone of the next overlying formation occupy the middle of that part of Tuscarora valley which is in Huntingdon county, and «re seen along the eastern base of Sideling Hill, crossing to the north of the Juniata, below the town of Huntingdon, and then passing up the Raystown Branch, west of Terrace Mountain. The same rocks also appear along the base of Allegheny Mountain, and for some distance up the ascent. A hard coarse sand-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Is a neat post town and borough, on the turnpike road leading from the borough of Huntingdon to Ebensburg, and on the left bank of the Juniata, seven miles above Huntingdon, near the mouth of Little Juniata ; it contains about seventy-five dwellings, chiefly brick and frame, a Presbyterian and Methodist church, seven stores, one brewery, one grist mill. It was incorporated as a borough April 11, 1827. It is quite a place for business.
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.
Born hereJoseph Saxton is born here
Born hereDavid McMurtrie Gregg is born here
Born hereHorace Porter is born here
In the archiveNear Huntingdon, Penna. R.RBuiltLloyd and Henry Warehouse is built
In the archiveGrand balloon ascension! Huntingdon, Pa., Saturday, July 22d, 1871
In the archiveHuntingdon County, Pennsylvania, Courthouse 1905
In the archiveHuntingdon, Pa., 1913
Born hereChristina Crosby is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Huntingdon. 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 Huntingdon.
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 Huntingdon’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 676 and 7,558 people in every census since 1800.
22 censuses, 1800–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Huntingdon’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Huntingdon’s post office has been open since 1803.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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.
In 1767, according to Wikidata. Huntingdon’s post office opened in 1803, and the census of 1800 counted 688 people here.
Huntingdon is among the most historic 1% of U.S. towns, #11 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 Huntingdon Borough Historic District (listed 1986), the Lloyd and Henry Warehouse (1990) and the Pennsylvania Railroad Old Bridge over Standing Stone Creek (1990).
50% of Huntingdon’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 1940.
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 (4), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1867
1913
