Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns. What drives it
1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 71 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1790.
The Danby post office opened in 1801, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Danby Four Corners (1837), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
More historic than 92% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Danby is more historic than 92% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its National Register listings ranks highest and its share of homes from before 1940 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 Danby’s 627 sits above most of its state (91% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 71 historic buildings outnumber those of 87% 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.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Danby’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.
Peaked at 1,730 in 1810; 1,284 people lived here in 2020.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Danby’s Wikipedia page.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Danby yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Danby is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,284 at the 2020 census.
Its first post office opened in 1801. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,311 to 1,284 (-2%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Danby, cut from the printed page as they were published.
he lived in was supplied with physicians older than himself, and after a few years he concluded to try his fortune in a new country, and came to Danby, which was then new enough to satisfy any one who chose the wiiderness to live in. His first place of business in Danby was near where the old Quaker meeting-house stood ; living in a house belonging to Stephen
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
material Rasures or Interiinations, allows j the same to be put on Record in one or bub of Town Books of Records for the town of Danby and Harwich. Koswell Hopkins, Justice of the liacc."
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Born hereJohn G. Otis is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveDanby, VT in 1959One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Danby. 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 Danby.
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 Danby’s page.
Retake this view · +15Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Danby’s post office has been open since 1801. Another post office, Danby Four Corners, 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).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Danby post office opened in 1801, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Danby is more historic than 92% 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.
One place: the Danby Village Historic District (listed 1983).
22% of Danby’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1981.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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