Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Vasiliymeshko · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 36% of U.S. towns · #893 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1860.
Pittston Township dates its founding to 1853 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 36% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pittston Township is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #893 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 Pittston 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: Wikidata (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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pittston 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 Pittston Township.
Peaked at 18,497 in 1920; 7,591 people lived here in 2020.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pittston Township’s Wikipedia page.
Another post office, Roosevelt, 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Pittston Township.
During the Revolutionary War, the Wyoming Valley became a battleground between the British and the Americans. On July 3, 1778, a force of British provincial soldiers, with the assistance of about 500 Iroquois, attacked and killed about 300 Patriot soldiers at the Battle of Wyoming.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Pittston Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
There they made their home until they removed from Wilkes-Barre\ From 1796 till 1799 William Slocum was Sheriff of Luzerne County — which then comprehended the territory now included within the bounds of the counties of Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Susquehanna, and part of Bradford. In March, 1799, William Slocum bought of Nathan Baldwin a farm in Pittston Township, and thither he removed with his family. In 1808 he was elected a Justice of the Peace in and for Pittston Township.
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 archiveWyomingValleyForts
In the archiveMap of about 8000 acres of land on Spring Brook in the towns of Pittston and Covington, C…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveDome) burned out of the solid rock by gas in no. 6 shaft of the Pennsylvania Coal Co., Pi…3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1890s. 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 Pittston Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1853, according to Wikidata. Pittston Township’s post office opened in 1899, and the census of 1860 counted 3,682 people here.
Pittston Township is more historic than 36% of U.S. towns, #893 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.
17% of Pittston Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.6 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1975.
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 (6), Wikipedia, 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 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.
1864
1892
1892