Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 176 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1874 on and old-book passages.
The Millheim post office opened in 1824, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Millheim’s history is told.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Millheim yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1824. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 904 to 831 (-8%).
Passages that mention Millheim, cut from the printed page as they were published.
He had been to the post office at Earlysburg. He handed Sargeant a tiny, badly typed newspaper published in Millheim. Across the front page, in letters larger than usual, were the words, ''Mexico Declares War With the United States'". Sargeant scanned the headline intently, then laid the paper on the table.
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 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Millheim post office opened in 1824, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Millheim Historic District (listed 1986).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2021
2013