Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Sunnyside Farm, the Hamilton Masonic Lodge and the Janney House. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1944 on, and the census since 1880.
The Hamilton post office opened in 1835, 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 Hamilton’s history is told.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
From Wikipedia’s history of Hamilton.
The present Town of Hamilton was once occupied by several native tribes. European settlers arrived in the 1730s. In 1768, George and Tabitha Roach Tavenner built the first house in the Hamilton area. Their son, Richard and his wife Ann Hatcher, built an estate called Harmony and the surrounding area was thereafter known as Harmony.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hamilton. 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 Hamilton.
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 Hamilton’s page.
Retake this view · +15The 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.
Between 248 and 700 people in every census since 1880.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hamilton’s Wikipedia page.
The Hamilton post office opened in 1835, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Three places: the Sunnyside Farm (listed 1994), the Hamilton Masonic Lodge (1999) and the Janney House (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 Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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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