Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 94% of U.S. towns. What drives it
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 8 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1902 on, and the census since 1790.
Salisbury dates its founding to 1761 (Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history agree). It appears in the first U.S. census, 1790.
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, Salisbury is more historic than 94% of U.S. towns. All 3 inputs are above most U.S. towns; its age 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 Salisbury’s 91.7 sits near the middle of its state (56% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Salisbury’s history is told.
Lost a third of its people between 1850 and 1950, then more than doubled.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Salisbury’s Wikipedia page.
Salisbury’s post office has been open since 1801. Two 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).
From Wikipedia’s history of Salisbury.
Salisbury was chartered on November 3, 1761, as one of the New Hampshire Grants issued by Benning Wentworth. The town may have been named after Salisbury, Connecticut (which was named after Salisbury, Wiltshire), or for James Cecil, 6th Earl of Salisbury.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention Salisbury, cut from the printed page as they were published.
meet a committee from Leicester, to see if they can settle the difficulty between the two towns, and make report at an adjourned meeting." And, finally, April 14, 1796, it was " voted that the town of Salisbury will make the south line of lot 'No. 20 the jurisdiction line between the towns of Salisbury and Leicester, and on the 19th of April of the same year the committee made the following report :
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
back with their wdiole family, to make a permanent * As a saw-mill was erected at Sutherland's falls, in Eutland, about the year 1773, those living near Otter creek, in Salisbury and in other towns, could obtain boards (which were floated down the creek), for such purposes as making doors and tables. The first table, and the only one used in the family of Holland Weeks for several years after his settlement in Salisbury, was made of the crotch of a tree, hewed tolerably
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 hereWilbur F. Storey is born here
Born hereJohn Eliakim Weeks is born here
Born hereJulius W. Atwood is born here
BuiltShard Villa is built
In the archiveLake Dunmore House, Green Mountains
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Salisbury. 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 Salisbury.
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 Salisbury’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.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1761, according to Wikidata and Wikipedia’s history of the town. Salisbury’s post office opened in 1801, and the first U.S. census counted 446 people here in 1790.
Salisbury is more historic than 94% 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: 3 buildings and 2 historic districts, the Shard Villa and the Salisbury Fish Hatchery, with 8 contributing buildings. 11 historic buildings in all.
28% of Salisbury’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.6 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 the Library of Congress (4), 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), 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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