Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1857.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Union Township’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Union Township is more historic than 45% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Union Township’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 Union 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.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikidata alone; no second source gives 1856.
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 (±6.1 points).
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 →
What stands out about Union Township’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Union City Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 31, 1990, after Erie County Historical Society members John Claridge and William Sisson included historical information in a nomination document to the National Park Service in August, 1989. According to the document, it was established in 1800 as Miles Mills by William Miles. He built a dam on the south branch of French Creek and erected a gristmill and sawmill. Miles Mills consisted of only a few small mills until 1855, where towns were built around French Creek for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which came in 1858. Shortly after, Edwin L. Drake successfully drilled for oil in Titusville, and the town became a rail head for oil. The Atlantic and Great Western rail line was built through Miles Mills in 1860, with the town creating three refineries and a barrel-making industry. The ci…
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Union Township. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1929Union City 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 Union Township.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewUnion City, Erie County, Pennsylvania 1895, 1895
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Union Township’s page.
In 1856, according to Wikidata. Union Township’s post office opened in 1857, and the census of 1870 counted 1,500 people here.
How does Union Township rank for history?
Union Township is more historic than 45% 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 Union Township?
26% of Union Township’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.1 points), against a typical 18% for a Pennsylvania town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1895
1940
