Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the GAR Building, the Hotel Lykens and the Israel Building. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1850 on and old-book passages.
The Lykens post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lykens is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. 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 Lykens’ 16.0 sits above most of its state (81% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lykens’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lykens.
Lykens was laid out in 1848. The borough was named after the first European settler and pioneer Andrew Lycan who came from Berks, Pennsylvania in 1731. Lykens is the grandson of Swedish immigrant Peter Nilsson Lyckan.
The GAR Building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Lykens, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Gratz, situated in Lykens townsihp, platted in 1805, by Simon Gratz. It was incorporated in April, 1852. Harrisburg, the seat of justice and now the State Capital, was originally platted by John Harris, Jr., July 6, 1785, under the following circumstances : The town proposed by Mr. Harris was laid out in the spring of 1785, by William Maclay, who was a son-inlaw of Mr. Harris. Mr. Maclay made a draft of the town and drew up the following conveyances from John Harris to the Com-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Banking was at first started in Lykens by a branch of the Lykens Valley Bank, in 1870. Two years later, May 6, 1872, the Miners' Deposit Bank was incorporated with $60,000 paid up capital, with J. M. Blum president, who was succeeded in turn by
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1850s. 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 Lykens’ page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Lykens’s post office has been open since 1857.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Lykens post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Lykens is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. 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 GAR Building (listed 1986), the Hotel Lykens (2016) and the Israel Building (2016).
56% of Lykens’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±16.6 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1938.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (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.
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