Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
8 places in town are on the National Register. Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1910 on.
The Ipswich post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Sandwich (1883) and Stella (1883), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
Ipswich was named by Charles H. Prior after either Ipswich, in England, or Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ipswich’s history is told.
Ipswich’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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ipswich.
Ipswich was founded in 1883 as a stop on the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. It was named by Charles H. Prior after either Ipswich, in England, or Ipswich, Massachusetts.
Preachers Run, a tributary of the James River, runs through Ipswich.
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.
Born hereEverett S. Hughes is born here
In the archivePostcardBankIpswichSD
Born hereDonald Lester Jackson is born here
In the archiveIpswich, South Dakota. Village priest riding a bicycle to town2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1940s. 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 Ipswich’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Ipswich post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
8 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Marcus Beebe House (listed 1976, the first). 9 historic buildings in all.
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 (1), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
