Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns · #28 of 71 in Vermont. What drives it
7 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 121 buildings. Below: 12 old photos and papers and maps from 1885 on.
The Newport post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Newport is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #28 of 71 in Vermont. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its share of homes from before 1940 ranks highest and its age 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 Newport’s 294 sits above most of its state (78% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 129 historic buildings outnumber those of 91% 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 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.
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 year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
6 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Newport yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Its first post office opened in 1834. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 4,589 to 4,455 (-3%).
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveThe Memphremagog House
In the archiveUS-VT(1891) p843 NEWPORT, LAKE MEMPHREMAGOGBuiltWhite, Ai J., Duplex is builtBuiltGoodrich Memorial Library is built
In the archiveMemphermagog House fire, May 16, 1907
In the archiveVermont, Newport and Lake Memphremagog
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveGoodrich Memorial Library
In the archiveNewport, VTEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Newport. 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 Newport.
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 Newport’s page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Newport itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Newport’s post office has been open since 1834.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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 Newport post office opened in 1834, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Newport is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns, #28 of 71 in Vermont. 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.
7 listings: 6 buildings, among them the U.S. Courthouse, Post Office and Customs House (listed 1976, the first), and 1 historic district, the Newport Downtown Historic District, with 121 contributing buildings. 129 historic buildings in all.
30% of Newport’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1966.
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 (9), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (7), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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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