Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Wells Village School. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1894 on, and the census since 1790.
The Wells post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wells is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
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 Wells’ 8.7 sits below most of its state (20% of Vermont towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 Wells’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1810 and 1960, then more than doubled.
24 censuses, 1790–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Wells’ Wikipedia page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Wells yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Wells is a town in Rutland County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a total population of 1,214.
Its first post office opened in 1828. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 1,150 to 1,214 (+6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Passages that mention Wells, cut from the printed page as they were published.
bly, held in October at Rutland, the Committee made their report of the facts, accompanied with a bill incorporating certain territory of the towns of Wells, Poultney, Tinmouth and Ira, into a town under the name of Middletown.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Wells. 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 Wells.
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.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Wells’s post office has been open since 1828.
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 Wells post office opened in 1828, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Wells is more historic than 62% 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 Wells Village School (listed 1993).
15% of Wells’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 22% for a Vermont town; the median home was built in 1977.
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), 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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