Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns · #36 of 177 in Tennessee. What drives it
Most of Crossville was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 409 buildings between them. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1912 on, and the census since 1870.
The Crossville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1856.
More historic than 71% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Crossville is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #36 of 177 in Tennessee. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Crossville’s 332 sits above most of its state (98% of Tennessee towns have fewer) while its 413 historic buildings outnumber those of 96% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (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.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Crossville’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).
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Crossville. 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 Crossville.
From Wikipedia’s history of Crossville.
Crossville developed at the intersection of a branch of the Great Stage Road, which connected the Knoxville area with the Nashville area, and the Kentucky Stock Road, a cattle drovers' path connecting Middle Tennessee with Kentucky and later extending south to Chattanooga. These two roads are roughly paralleled by modern US-40 and US-127, respectively.
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.
BuiltCumberland County Courthouses is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereMarjorie Weaver is born here
In the archiveSawmill. Crossville, TennesseeBuiltCrossville Tennessee Highway Patrol Building is built
Born hereJulie Ann Emery is born here
Born hereStormi Henley is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. 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 Crossville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 95 people in 1870 to 12,071 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Crossville’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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Crossville post office opened in 1836, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1856.
Crossville is more historic than 71% of U.S. towns, #36 of 177 in Tennessee. 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: 3 buildings, among them the Cumberland County Courthouses (listed 1980, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Cumberland Homesteads Historic District and the Cumberland Mountain School, with 409 contributing buildings. 413 historic buildings in all.
1% of Crossville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.1 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1992.
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 the Library of Congress (5), Wikidata (1), 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) 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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1935