Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.01 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 40 buildings. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1910.
The Paducah post office opened in 1891, 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Paducah’s history is told.
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.
Peaked at 2,952 in 1950; 1,063 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Paducah’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Paducah.
The town was named for Paducah, a city in western Kentucky. Richard Potts, a settler from Paducah, Kentucky, offered land to new residents in exchange for voting to name the town Paducah and make it the county seat. Paducah officially became the county seat in 1892 and was incorporated in 1910.
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.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Paducah. 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 Paducah.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The Paducah post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Cottle County Courthouse Historic District (listed 2004).
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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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