Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Skinner Tavern · Photo: Smallbones · CC0More historic than 70% of U.S. towns · #472 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Horse Valley Bridge, the Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church and the Skinner Tavern. Below: maps from 1923 on and the census since 2000.
The Letterkenny Township post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Six smaller post offices, Strasburg (1797), Rocky Spring (1836) and Keefers (1879), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Letterkenny Township is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #472 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age 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 Letterkenny Township’s 12.0 sits above most of its state (79% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 3 listings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (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.
Six 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 Letterkenny Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Letterkenny 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 Letterkenny Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Letterkenny Township.
The township is named after Letterkenny in County Donegal, Ireland. The Horse Valley Bridge, Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church, and Skinner Tavern are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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.
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.
Between 2,074 and 2,462 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Letterkenny Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Letterkenny Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Letterkenny Township post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Letterkenny Township is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #472 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 Horse Valley Bridge (listed 1988), the Rocky Spring Presbyterian Church (1994) and the Skinner Tavern (2005).
24% of Letterkenny Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.7 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1974.
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), 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.
