Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1910 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Marion Township is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. 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 Marion 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Marion Township’s history is told.
Another post office, Murrinsville, 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 Marion 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 Marion Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Marion Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Marion Township is a township in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,150 at the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,239 to 1,167 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Marion Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
One of the earliest mills built in Marion Township was erected. by a Revolutionary officer, General Campbell, which later was owned by the Ray family, and for many years was operated. In 1810, the McMurry distillery and grist-mill was built; in 1815 Robert Seaton erected a tannery and a fulling-mill; in 1825 the Blacks built a sawmill and grist-mill, and William Evans also owned a saw-mill and iron furnace. In 1850, the Marion furnace was established by James.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
During the same year in which David Armstrong came to what is now Butler County (1794) a hunter named Daniels came to Butler County and built a cabin and cultivated a small garden on lands in Marion Township, afterwards owned by Robert Vanderlin. The Seneca and Delaware Indians, who still lingered on hunting grounds in the northern part of the county, assuming a threatening attitude, Daniels returned to the settlements east of the Allegheny River, and
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 archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Pennsylvania - Butler County - Marion - ED 10-63
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1880s. 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 Marion Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Marion Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Marion Township is more historic than 52% 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.
25% of Marion Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.9 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (3), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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