Most of Carthage was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1965. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1870.
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1807.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Carthage’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Carthage is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
B+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Carthage’s overall grade.
Tennessee towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Tennessee town has 6.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Carthage’s 25.8 sits above most of its state (77% of Tennessee towns have fewer) while its 6 listings outnumber those of 72% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±4.5 points). Two sources give 1789.
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 Carthage’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Lost a third of its people between 1870 and 1880, then grew 7-fold.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Carthage’s Wikipedia page.
Every building
Carthage, building by building, 1894–1913
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.
1894Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The earliest known European-American settler in what is now Carthage was William Walton (1760–1816), who arrived in the late 1780s after the United States achieved independence in the American Revolutionary War. Circa 1800, Walton directed the construction of the Walton Road (Cumberland Turnpike), an early stagecoach route connecting the Knoxville area in the east with Middle Tennessee. The road, which was roughly paralleled later by the construction of what is now U.S. 70, was influential to the development and early settlement of the Cumberland region. Walton operated a ferry across the Cumberland River and a tavern nearby along the road, around which a small community developed. In 1804, Walton's community was chosen as the county seat of the newly formed Smith County after a heated election, and the town of Carthage was laid out shortly thereafter.
In 1789, according to Wikidata. Carthage’s post office opened in 1807, and the census of 1870 counted 477 people here.
How does Carthage rank for history?
Carthage is more historic than 70% 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.
What is on the National Register in Carthage?
6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Smith County Courthouse (listed 1979, the first), and 1 structure.
How old are the homes in Carthage?
6% of Carthage’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.5 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1965.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (6), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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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