Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Big Flats was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: maps from 1967 on and the census since 1870.
The Big Flats post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Niebull (1888), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
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 Big Flats’s history is told.
Lost half of its people between 1900 and 1960, then grew 3-fold.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Big Flats’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Big Flats.
The town of Big Flats was created on November 15, 1861, and the name was changed from Brownsville. The community of Big Flats once had a post office, which opened in August 1862; John W. Potter was the first postmaster. The community most likely takes its name from Big Flats, New York.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Big Flats. 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 Big Flats.
Nobody well known was born in Big Flats itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Big Flats had its own post office from 1862 to 1924. Another post office, Niebull, 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 Big Flats post office opened in 1862, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikipedia, 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.
