Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1923 on and old-book passages.
The Knoxville post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1835.
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 Knoxville’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Knoxville.
The land on which the town of Knoxville, Pennsylvania would be created was situated in Deerfield Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania. The town was laid out and settled in 1835, and was officially incorporated as a borough in May 1851.
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.
Born hereCharles Meredith is born here
In the archiveKnoxville PA Presby PHS302Passages that mention Knoxville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The first school in Knoxville was erected in 1817, and was built of plank, dove-tailed and dowel-pianed to the frame. In 1834 a better house was bmlt, on the south side of Main street, and farther east. Between 1855 and 1860 the school district rented the Quaker meeting house, owing to a dispute, involving possession of the school house, with John Groodspeed, who nailed up the building, "illegally using it," as the directors set forth in their proceeding, "for a store room." Being unable to dispossess him, except by violence, they "left the house in his possession."
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has ever been given it at any one time. Silas Billings, who had purchased the unsold portion of the Strawbridge tract, as has already been related in the history of Deerfield, came to Knoxville in that year and set on foot many business enterprises. He had capital, credit, experience and a disposition to make manufacturing and commercial ventures. With him came several young men, at that time in his employ, who have since made
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and its boundaries defined by the following statute: "Section i. — Be it enacted, etc. That Knoxville, in the county of Tioga, shall be set apart and be separated from the township of Deerfield in said county, and the same shall be, and is hereby, erected into a borough, which shall be called ' the borough of Knoxville,' bounded and
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1877, and practiced in Knoxville until 1881. John T. Gear, a native of Pittsford, Monroe county, New York, was admitted to the Potter county bar in June, 1881, and December 1, of that year, opened an office in Knoxville, where he has since resided and successfully practiced his profession. H. A. Ashton, the present postmaster of Knoxville, was admitted to the Tioga county bar in December, 1887, and immediately located in Knoxville. He has since built up a fair practice.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. 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 Knoxville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Knoxville post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1835.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1923
2008