Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #24 of 169 in South Carolina. What drives it
Most of Conway was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. 21 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 176 buildings between them. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1920 on, and the census since 1860.
Conway dates its founding to 1732 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1860.
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, Conway is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #24 of 169 in South Carolina. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
South Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical South Carolina town has 3.2 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Conway’s 73.0 sits above most of its state (82% of South Carolina towns have fewer) while its 199 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Conway’s post office has been open since 1882. Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Conway.
Conway is one of the oldest towns in South Carolina. Early English colonists named the village "Kings Town" but soon changed it to "Kingston". The town was founded in 1732 as part of Royal Governor Robert Johnson's Township Scheme. It was laid out on a bluff overlooking the Waccamaw River in what is now known as Horry County.
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.
BuiltArthur M. Burroughs House is built
In the archiveMain Street
In the archiveConway - Educational Day
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Conway. 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 Conway.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1920Sheet 1 of 6Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Conway’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 476 people in 1860 to 24,849 in 2020, more than tenfold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Conway’s Wikipedia page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Conway’s history is told.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1732, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Conway’s post office opened in 1807, and the census of 1860 counted 476 people here.
Conway is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #24 of 169 in South Carolina. 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.
21 listings: 16 buildings, among them the Old Horry County Courthouse (listed 1971, the first), 3 historic districts, the Waccamaw River Warehouse Historic District, the Conway Residential Historic District and the Conway Downtown Historic District, with 176 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 199 historic buildings in all.
3% of Conway’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 3.5% for a South Carolina town; the median home was built in 2001.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (21), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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