Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 9 buildings between them. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1790.
The Barnet post office opened in 1807, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, West Barnet (1853), Norrisville (1866) and McLerans (1877), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 90% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Barnet is more historic than 90% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its National Register listings lowest.
Vermont towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Vermont town has 147 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Barnet’s 59.3 sits near the middle of its state (49% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% 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.
Barnet’s post office has been open since 1807. Three 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).
Peaked at 2,604 in 1930; 1,663 people lived here in 2020.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Barnet’s Wikipedia page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltPhineas Thurston House is built
Born hereHorace Fairbanks is born here
Born hereHenry Clay Ide is born here
Born hereDavid J. Foster is born here
In the archiveView from Ox Bow cliff, Barnet, Vt
Born hereRalph Flanders is born here
In the archiveBarnet Library ca1901 Vermont 2
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveAutumn in New England'sFrom Wikipedia’s history of Barnet.
The town of Barnet, Vermont, originally took its name from the town of Barnet, England.
On September 16, 1763, the town received its charter from the royal governor of New Hampshire, Benning Wentworth.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Barnet. 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 Barnet.
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 Barnet’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.
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.
The Barnet post office opened in 1807, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Barnet is more historic than 90% 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.
5 listings: 2 buildings, among them the McIndoes Academy (listed 1975, the first), and 3 historic districts, the Barnet Center Historic DIstrict, the William and Agnes Gilkerson Farm and the Thresher Mill, with 9 contributing buildings. 11 historic buildings in all.
38% of Barnet’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±8.5 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1974.
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 (8), the Library of Congress (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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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