Founding year: the first Riverside post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1871.
History grade
What drives Riverside’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Riverside is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Riverside’s overall grade.
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 Riverside’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.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±7.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1871 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 →
What stands out about Riverside’s past
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 Riverside. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1892Shamokin sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Riverside.
The story so far
Riverside, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Riverside yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Riverside is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, Riverside had a population of 2,040. The current mayor is John LaMotte.
Its first post office opened in 1870. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,932 to 2,040 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Riverside in 1891
Passages that mention Riverside, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania1891 · page 802Read the page →
Read the text
The Riverside school building, a brick structure forty by twenty-six feet and two stories high, was erected in 1871 at a cost of four thousand seven hundred forty-eight dollars, twenty-nine cents; the first term was opened in the autumn of that year with Miss Mamie Wilkes as teacher. The first school directors, appointed by the legislature in the act incorporating the borough, were J. W. Scott, William Faux, Daniel Huber, Benjamin G. Welch, C P. Gearhart. and 0. Longacre.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, including its aboriginal history1891Read the page →
Read the text
Municipal Government. — The borough of Riverside was incorporated, May 4, 1871, by act of the legislature; until the first election for borough officers should occur, this act provided that Edward Crompton should act as burgess, and A. Motzenbacher, W. Yeager, Daniel Leiby, W. A. Miller, Joel T. Baily, and O. H. Ostrander as councilmen. Since 1873 the following persons have been elected to the office of burgess: 1873, C. P. Gearhart; 1874,
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.
Timeline
Riverside, 1850 to 1892
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Riverside post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1871.
How does Riverside rank for history?
Riverside is more historic than 40% 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.
How old are the homes in Riverside?
20% of Riverside’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1963.
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), 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.
2024
2024
2024
2015
2008