Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns · #938 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1909 on, and old-book passages.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Oakland Township is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #938 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. 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 Oakland 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 Oakland Township’s history is told.
Two 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 Oakland 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 Oakland Township.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Oakland Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Oakland Township is a township that is located in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,772 at the time of the 2020 census.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,987 to 2,769 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Oakland Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The villages of Oakland Township have borne respectively the following names: Springfield, North Oakland, Woodbine, Boydstown, St. Joe Station, and Oneida. Inducements were offered settlers in 1830 to locate near the Donegal Township line, at Springfield, it being represented that stone, coal, limestone and fire-clay there abounded in sufficient quantities to make it an active business center.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Oakland Township was established under its present name and within its present boundaries in 1854. It was probably settled about the same time as were Butler and Donegal Townships, it forming a part of these until the year above mentioned. The O’Donnells, of Donegal, Ireland, and the Whitmires, of Berks County, Pennsylvania, both came to this section in 1798, and other pioneers of near the same period were Thomas Dugan and wife and John Green and John Lowe.
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 - Oakland - ED 10-69
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 Oakland Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Oakland Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Oakland Township is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #938 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.
12% of Oakland Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.0 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1979.
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.
2015
2014
