Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Haymarket was built recently: 0.6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1996. Its Register listings are the St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the Old Town Hall and School. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1863 on.
Haymarket dates its founding to 1799 (Wikidata).
More historic than 47% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Haymarket is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. Its age holds 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 Haymarket’s 12.7 sits near the middle of its state (57% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% 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.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereEdmund Brooke Alexander is born here
Born hereGeorge R. Latham is born here
In the archiveHaymarket, Va. 63
In the archiveDrugstoreFrom Wikipedia’s history of Haymarket.
Haymarket is built on land that used to be hunting grounds of the western Iroquois nations, who came from the New York and Pennsylvania area around the Great Lakes. They used hunting paths through the land until 1722, when they made a treaty with the colonies of Virginia and New York to move into the Blue Ridge Mountain region.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1940s. 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 Haymarket’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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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.
In 1799, according to Wikidata.
Haymarket is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. 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.
Two places: the St. Paul's Episcopal Church (listed 1975) and the Old Town Hall and School (2011).
0.6% of Haymarket’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1996.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people 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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