Founding year: the first Mars post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mars’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mars is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mars’ 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 Mars’ 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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.4 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Mars’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1873, Samuel Parks constructed a home and a water-powered gristmill along Breakneck Creek. Parks decided to have a post office placed in his home, so he received help from his friend Samuel Marshall to help establish it. The name of the post office became Overbrook. In 1877, the Pittsburgh, New Castle and Lake Erie Railroad was constructed through Overbrook, and had a station built there. In 1882, the name of the community was changed to Mars since the railroad already had a stop with the name "Overbrook". No one is sure how the name "Mars" came into being. Some say it was Parks's wife who enjoyed astronomy, while others believe it was shortened after Samuel Marshall's name. On March 6, 1895, Mars was incorporated as a borough.
Passages that mention Mars, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Butler County Pennsylvania1927 · page 563Read the page →
Read the text
Mars, the principal town of Adams Township, has enjoyed a steady growth. In 1875 the post office was opened here, called Overbrook Post Office, and by this name the town was known until 1882, when the name of Mars was adopted. Many people employed in the oil fields reside in Mars. The inter-urban street car line (the Harmony Line) and the B. & O. Railroad have many employees who make their home in this thriving town.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Butler County Pennsylvania1927 · page 260Read the page →
Read the text
part of Franklin township, all of Connoquenessing, Forward and Adams townships, including the villages of Mount Chestnut, Prospect, Whitestown, Connoquenessing (of Petersville), and the town of Mars. The fourth district was Nicholson’s, and the fifth Alexander’s, the dividing line between the two being about four miles east of the western boundary of the county, and dividing the townships of Cranberry, Jackson, Lancaster and Muddycreek. Evans City is in Nich-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The township has never departed from its attachments to agriculture, and hence the record of manufacturing industries is confined to Robert McKinney's distillery, established in 1819, and Samuel Roseboro's grist mill, near Mars, built in 1883, near the site of Matthew Park's old mill.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Hendersonville, the old postoffice of the township, was superseded by Mars, in Adams township, whither many of the inhabitants went after the railroad was completed to that point.
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
Mars, 1873 to 1993
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.
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.
The Mars post office opened in 1873, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Mars rank for history?
Mars is more historic than 50% 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.
How old are the homes in Mars?
34% of Mars’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.4 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1968.
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 (12), 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.
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