Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1860.
The Orbisonia post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1850.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 963 in 1890; 449 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Orbisonia’s Wikipedia page.
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.
1894Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions 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.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Orbisonia yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Orbisonia is a borough in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Orbisonia had a population of 449.
Its first post office opened in 1832. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 428 to 449 (+5%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orbisonia. 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 Orbisonia.
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 Orbisonia’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Orbisonia itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Orbisonia post office opened in 1832, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1850.
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 (6), 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 and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1986
1986
1986
2006
