Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Evanoco · CC BY-SA 4.0More historic than 83% of U.S. towns · #20 of 169 in South Carolina. What drives it
Most of Lake City was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 44 buildings. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1913 on, and the census since 1900.
Lake City dates its founding to 1736 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1900.
More historic than 83% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Lake City is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #20 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 Lake City’s 86.8 sits above most of its state (82% of South Carolina towns have fewer) while its 52 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lake City’s post office has been open since 1883. 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).
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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveLake City - Main Street, looking west 01
In the archiveLake City - Main Street, looking east
In the archiveLake City - Big Brick Warehouse
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereRonald McNair is born here
Born hereDerrick Burgess is born hereFrom Wikipedia’s history of Lake City.
The Lake City area was originally part of Williamsburg Township, which was first settled by a group of Scots-Irish in 1736. It was first called "Graham's Crossroads" and then "Graham", after Aaron Graham, a land owner around the crossroads that now form Church and Main streets in Lake City.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
c. 1915Lake City - Main Street, looking west 01Postcard
c. 1915Lake City - Main Street, looking west 02Postcardc. 1925Lake City - Main Street, looking eastPostcardc. 1935Lake City - Big Brick WarehousePostcard
c. 1935Lake City - Graham's Warehouse 01Postcard
c. 1935Lake City - Graham's Warehouse 02Postcard
c. 1935Lake City - The Imperial Tobacco Co. 01Postcard
c. 1935Lake City - The Imperial Tobacco Co. 02PostcardEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lake City. 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 Lake City.
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.
1913Sheet 1 of 4Sanborn 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 Lake City’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 374 and 7,153 people in every census since 1900.
13 censuses, 1900–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lake City’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1736, according to Wikidata. Lake City’s post office opened in 1843, and the census of 1900 counted 374 people here.
Lake City is more historic than 83% of U.S. towns, #20 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the W. T. Askins House (listed 1995, the first), and 1 historic district, the Lake City Downtown Historic District, with 44 contributing buildings. 52 historic buildings in all.
6% of Lake City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.3 points), against a typical 3.5% for a South Carolina town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (13), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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), 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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