Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
8 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 65 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1917 on, and the census since 1880.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Urbanna. 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 Urbanna.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Urbanna yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Urbanna is a town in Middlesex County, Virginia, United States. Urbanna means “City of Anne” and was named in honor of England's Queen Anne. As of the 2020 census, Urbanna had a population of 492.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 476 to 492 (+3%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereWilliam Overton Callis is born here
Born hereClarence E. Sutton is born here
In the archive"Rosegill," Middlesex County, Va., on the Rappahannock River at Urbanna. View from land s…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyOne decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.
1921Sheet 2 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Urbanna’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 163 and 543 people in every census since 1880.
13 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Urbanna’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Urbanna’s history is told.
8 listings: 7 buildings, among them the Mills, James, Storehouse (listed 1972, the first), and 1 historic district, the Urbanna Historic District, with 65 contributing buildings. 80 historic buildings in all.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (8), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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