Founding year: the first Onancock post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Onancock’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Onancock is more historic than 97% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its age lowest.
A+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Onancock’s overall grade.
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 Onancock’s 1,898 sits above most of its state (99% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 272 historic buildings outnumber those of 95% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from A to A+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
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 →
What stands out about Onancock’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
According to a nearby Virginia state highway marker, Onancock was founded in 1680. A courthouse was established some years after, and militia barracks established during the Revolution.
Some thirteen months after Cornwallis' October 1781 surrender at Yorktown, Commodore Zedechiah Whaley sought aid from Onancock during a naval campaign against British barges of war that had been harassing the shores and farms of Chesapeake Bay. On November 28, 1782, he sailed up Onancock Creek and appealed to Lt. Colonel John Cropper, who rounded up 25 local men in support. They boarded Whaley's flagship, Protector, and continued his siege upon the British flotilla.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Onancock post office opened in 1826, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Onancock rank for history?
Onancock is more historic than 97% 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.
What is on the National Register in Onancock?
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Hopkins and Brother Store (listed 1969, the first), and 1 historic district, the Onancock Historic District, with 267 contributing buildings. 272 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Onancock?
31% of Onancock’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1955.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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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