Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Lowndesville was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1967. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1964 on, and the census since 1880.
The Lowndesville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 350 in 1910; 120 people lived here in 2020.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Lowndesville’s Wikipedia page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Lowndesville’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Lowndesville yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Lowndesville is a town in Abbeville County, South Carolina. The population was 120 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1836. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 128 to 120 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Date?Featherstone Tenant Farm, County Road 81
Date?Caldwell-Hutchison Farm, County Road 93
Date?Gregg Shoals Dam & Power Plant, Across Savannah River
Date?Long-Hutchison Farm, House, County Road 123
Date?Harper-Featherstone Tenant Farm, County Road 81
Date?Long-Hutchison Farm, Tenant Barn, County Road 123
Date?Harper-Featherstone Farm, Garage, .7 mile west of Cou…
Date?Harper-Featherstone Farm, Machine Shop, .7 mile west …
Date?Harper-Featherstone Farm, 0.7 mile west of County Roa…The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lowndesville.
1964Lowndesville sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Lowndesville.
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 Lowndesville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Lowndesville’s post office has been open since 1836.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Lowndesville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (3), the Library of Congress (9), 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.
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