Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns · #132 of 253 in Virginia. What drives it
Most of Madison Heights was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1944 on, and the census since 1950.
The Madison Heights post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, James River (1886) and Colony (1920), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 32% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Madison Heights is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #132 of 253 in Virginia. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age 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 Madison Heights’ 8.8 sits near the middle of its state (53% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 9 historic buildings outnumber those of 75% 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.
Madison Heights’s post office has been open since 1911. 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).
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Madison Heights’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.
From Wikipedia’s history of Madison Heights.
Fort Riverview (44AH91 and 44AH195), Galt's Mill Complex, Oak Lawn, and Hanshill are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mt. Sinai Baptist Church is a historically Black church in Madison Heights. In 1974, the pastor was Rev. Roger Ford.
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.
In the archiveVirginia State Colony for Epileptics and Feebleminded
Born hereFrank Wright, Jr. is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Madison Heights. 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 Madison Heights.
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 Madison Heights’ page.
Retake this view · +15Between 2,830 and 14,146 people in every census since 1950.
6 censuses, 1950–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Madison Heights’ 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 Madison Heights post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Madison Heights is more historic than 32% of U.S. towns, #132 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.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Oak Lawn (listed 2006, the first). 9 historic buildings in all.
8% of Madison Heights’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1972.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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.
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
2014
2005
2005
2005
2005
2004
