Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns · #122 of 253 in Virginia. What drives it
Most of Great Falls was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. 8 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Potomac Canal Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and two historic districts with 1 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1990.
The Great Falls post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Four smaller post offices, Matildaville (1828), Colvin Run (1878) and Leigh's (1889), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 34% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Great Falls is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #122 of 253 in Virginia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Virginia town has 3.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Great Falls’ 10.5 sits near the middle of its state (55% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 16 historic buildings outnumber those of 78% 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.
Great Falls’s post office has been open since 1878. Four 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 first neighbors to add old photos shape how Great Falls’s history is told.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Great Falls.
Colonial farm settlements began to form in the area as early as the late 1700s.
Early on, the village was known as Forestville (unofficially, since there was already a Forestville with a Post Office), but was renamed Great Falls in 1955.
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.
BuiltColvin Run Mill is built
In the archiveFalls of the Potomac from Maryland Shore
In the archiveHerald Great Falls Tour
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereKate Cordsen is born here
In the archiveThe Great Falls of the Potomac River, just upriver from Washington, D.C3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Great Falls. 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 Great Falls.
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 Great Falls’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 6,945 people in 1990 to 15,953 in 2020.
4 censuses, 1990–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Great Falls’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Great Falls post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Great Falls is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #122 of 253 in Virginia. 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.
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Cornwell Farm (listed 1977, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Potomac Canal Historic District and the Great Falls Park Historic District, with 1 contributing buildings. 16 historic buildings in all.
2% of Great Falls’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1985.
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 (2), the Library of Congress (4), the National Register of Historic Places (9), 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.
1861
2008
2008
