Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1824.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mansfield’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mansfield is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #198 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
A
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mansfield’s overall grade.
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 Mansfield’s 3.3 sits near the middle of its state (62% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B+ to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.5 points). Two sources give 1804.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 →
What stands out about Mansfield’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1800, an English settler from Rhode Island named Asa Mann cleared a large amount of forest, and in 1804 laid out the plan for a town on this estate—Mann's field. The borough was incorporated in 1857. In the same year, the Mansfield Classical Seminary was founded, which became a state normal school in 1862 and is today Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.
Mansfield is the place where the first night football game was played under electric lights, on September 28, 1892 sponsored by the Edison Illuminating Company. The 1892 Wyoming Seminary vs. Mansfield State Normal football game is celebrated in an annual festival which celebrates the 1890s.
Hart, also erected a saw-mill. The first saw-mill at Tioga was built by Dr. William Willard, about 1800, or soon after. The first grist-mill here was built in 1805 by Nicholas Prutsman and his sons. As early as 1803 Elihu Marvin built a saw-miU at Mansfield, and in 1805 added a hand grist-mill, which he had purchased of Dorman Bloss, a millwright, then living at Beecher's Island. In 1812 Amos Spencer erected a saw-mill and a grist-mill at Canoe Camp. In 1809 the first grist-mill at Mainesburg was erected by Noah Eumsey, Sr., and two years later sold by him to Jonathan L. Spencer. It was about 1810 that the De Pui grist-mill was erected on the Tioga
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania1897 · page 116Read the page →
Read the text
coal and iron lands at Blossburg, and a few years later began the erection of an iron furnace. After being owned and operated by a number of parties, usually at a loss, the plant was purchased by T. J. Mooers, in 1864, and has since been used as an iron foundry. In 1855 an iron furnace was erected at Mansfield by Charles F, Swan for the Mansfield Iron Company. It was operated until 1870, the ore being obtained from a deposit in Eichmond to-«Tiship three miles west of Mansfield, and also from a deposit at Eoseville.
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.
Timeline
Mansfield, 1804 to 1997
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
In 1804, according to Wikidata. Mansfield’s post office opened in 1824, and the census of 1860 counted 351 people here.
How does Mansfield rank for history?
Mansfield is more historic than 89% of U.S. towns, #198 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.
What is on the National Register in Mansfield?
One place: the Mansfield Armory (listed 1991).
How old are the homes in Mansfield?
47% of Mansfield’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.5 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1947.
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 (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
c. 1930
