Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 46% of U.S. towns · #790 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1953 on, and the census since 1850.
More historic than 46% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Manheim Township is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #790 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Manheim Township’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (25% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: our sources. 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.
Lost a third of its people between 1850 and 1860, then grew 3-fold.
15 censuses, 1850–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Manheim Township’s Wikipedia page.
Three 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).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Manheim Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Manheim Township is a township in York County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 3,460.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 3,380 to 3,462 (+2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Manheim Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
1750, when he purchased the farm now owned by John Kehr, near Iron Ridge Station, on the Hanover & York Railroad. He was appointed constable of Manheim Township, in which his property then lay, in 1750, and served in that office several years thereafter. He was naturalized April 10, 1762', and died the latter part of the year 1764, leaving a widow, two sons— Jacolj and Christian— and several
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.
In the archiveAlexander Anderson and Henry Richards in the act of murdering Mrs. Anna Garber and Mrs. E…
In the archiveManheim, Pennsylvania. Church on Main Street
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Manheim 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 Manheim Township.
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 Manheim Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Manheim Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
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.
Manheim Township is more historic than 46% of U.S. towns, #790 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.
20% of Manheim Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1984.
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 Library of Congress (6), 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 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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