Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Jerrye & Roy Klotz, MD · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 65% of U.S. towns · #546 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Old Dry Road and the Hain Mill. Below: maps from 1902 on and the census since 1980.
The Lower Heidelberg Township post office opened in 1864, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Lower Heidelberg (1864) and Cacoosing (1878), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 65% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lower Heidelberg Township is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #546 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its National Register listings hold 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 Lower Heidelberg Township’s 12.3 sits above most of its state (79% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 8 historic buildings outnumber those of 74% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lower Heidelberg 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lower Heidelberg 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 Lower Heidelberg Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lower Heidelberg Township.
The Hain Mill, Knorr-Bare Farm, Old Dry Road, and Tulpehocken Creek Historic District 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.
Weddings 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.
Grew from 1,819 people in 1980 to 5,513 in 2010, 3 times over.
4 censuses, 1980–2010.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lower Heidelberg Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lower Heidelberg Township post office opened in 1864, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lower Heidelberg Township is more historic than 65% of U.S. towns, #546 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.
Two places: the Old Dry Road (listed 1978) and the Hain Mill (1990).
17% of Lower Heidelberg Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.3 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1993.
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 (2), 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.
