Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns · #41 of 177 in Tennessee. What drives it
Most of Sevierville was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1994. 13 places in town are on the National Register, among them four historic districts with 127 buildings between them. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1935 on, and the census since 1870.
Sevierville dates its founding to 1795 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1870.
More historic than 70% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sevierville is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #41 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 Sevierville’s 75.6 sits above most of its state (87% of Tennessee towns have fewer) while its 139 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sevierville’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Sevierville’s post office has been open since 1857. 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Sevierville.
Native Americans of the Woodland period were among the first human inhabitants of the area that became Sevierville. They arrived circa 200 A.D.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Sevierville, cut from the printed page as they were published.
party fording the river at a break-neck speed, having left the main road ; and soon after, the clatter of hoofs died away in the distance. The sheriff and his men returned to Sevierville, and everything was quiet once more. Green and Hendricks left that night for parts unknown. But soon their old enemy was again on their trail. Tom Davis disappeared from Sevierville
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
About two miles up the river above Sevierville the hills close in toward the river, leaving only the width of the road, which is dug out of the hill, along which people may travel. Across the road at this narrow point there is a deep ravine or hollow through which a branch runs and over which there is a wooden bridge. There is no way to pass this point in the road except over this bridge. The White-caps in their raids often'passecTEHis
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltNew Salem Baptist Church is builtBuiltWaters House is built
In the archiveBrownlow-speech-sevierville-tn1
Born hereIrene Baker is born here
In the archive"Farm land on main highway near Sevierville, Tennessee. The pasture in the foreground has…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyBuiltUS Post Office-Sevierville is builtBuiltDwight and Kate Wade House is built
Born hereStella Parton is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sevierville. 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 Sevierville.
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 Sevierville’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 159 people in 1870 to 17,889 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Sevierville’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1795, according to Wikidata. Sevierville’s post office opened in 1820, and the census of 1870 counted 159 people here.
Sevierville is more historic than 70% of U.S. towns, #41 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.
13 listings: 9 buildings, among them the Buckingham House (listed 1971, the first), and 4 historic districts with 127 contributing buildings. 139 historic buildings in all.
2% of Sevierville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.4 points), against a typical 4.9% for a Tennessee town; the median home was built in 1994.
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 (12), Wikidata (4), the National Register of Historic Places (13), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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