Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #310 of 1,035 in Pennsylvania. What drives it
11 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 107 buildings between them. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1930.
The Tinicum Township post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Mattsville (1828), Uhlerstown (1871) and Tinicum (1884), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Tinicum Township is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #310 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 Tinicum Township’s 332 sits above most of its state (93% of Pennsylvania towns have fewer) while its 127 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% 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 Tinicum Township’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Tinicum 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 Tinicum Township.
From Wikipedia’s history of Tinicum Township.
The Red Hill Church and School, Ridge Valley Rural Historic District, and Lewis Summers Farm are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveLazaretto, Philada. quarantine station May 11th 56
BuiltBridge in Tinicum Township is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1850s. 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 Tinicum Township’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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 1,330 and 4,206 people in every census since 1930.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Tinicum Township’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Tinicum Township itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Tinicum Township post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Tinicum Township is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #310 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.
11 listings: 6 buildings, among them the Red Hill Church and School (listed 1978, the first), 2 historic districts, the Ridge Valley Rural Historic District and the Uhlerstown Historic District, with 107 contributing buildings, and 3 structures. 127 historic buildings in all.
25% of Tinicum Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.8 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (11), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
