Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Generic1139 · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 60% of U.S. towns · #598 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 18 buildings. Below: maps from 1901 on and the census since 2000.
The South Strabane Township post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Arden (1872), South Strabane (1876) and Laboratory (1887), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 60% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, South Strabane Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #598 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. Its National Register listings hold 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 South Strabane Township’s 33.2 sits above most of its state (84% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 32 historic buildings outnumber those of 82% 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.
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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how South Strabane Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of South Strabane 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 South Strabane Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of South Strabane Township.
The Doak-Little House, Martin Farmstead, and Thomas Munce House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention South Strabane Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.
for ten years and then went to Pittsburg for five years and leased and sold coal lauds over the country, disposing of several thousand acres. He then bought the Zediker homestead in South Strabane Township, where he has repaired all the buildings and for four years has been in the dairy business, although he is also yet interested in coal lands, having 600 acres of coal lands which he controls in South Strabane Township and owning 144 acres.
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.
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.
Between 7,987 and 9,616 people in every census since 2000.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on South Strabane Township’s Wikipedia page.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The South Strabane Township post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
South Strabane Township is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns, #598 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Martin Farmstead (listed 1995, the first), and 1 historic district, the Frank L. Ross Farm, with 18 contributing buildings. 32 historic buildings in all.
10% of South Strabane Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.0 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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.
