Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listings are the Bonnet's Tavern, the Heirline Covered Bridge and the Chestnut Ridge and Schellsburg Union Church and Cemetery. Below: maps from 1908 on.
The Napier Township post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Stuckeysville (1863), Napier (1879) and Point (1882), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 72% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Napier Township is more historic than 72% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls 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 Napier Township’s 19.0 sits above most of its state (82% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 4 historic buildings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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 Napier Township’s history is told.
Four 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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Napier 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 Napier Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Napier Township.
The Heirline Covered Bridge and New Paris Covered Bridge were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. Also listed are the Chestnut Ridge and Schellsburg Union Church and Cemetery and Bonnet's Tavern.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Napier Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Napier Township post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Napier Township is more historic than 72% 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.
Three places: the Bonnet's Tavern (listed 1979), the Heirline Covered Bridge (1980) and the Chestnut Ridge and Schellsburg Union Church and Cemetery (2005).
25% of Napier Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 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 the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
