Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Lakewood was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Its Register listings are the Holt and Balcom Logging Camp No.1 and the Smyth Road Bridge. Below: maps from 1972 on.
The Lakewood post office opened in 1897, the earliest record of the town by name.
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 Lakewood’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Lakewood.
In March 1952, three children disappeared during a late spring snow storm. A two-day search for them involved 1,000 people. Mary Ann Church, age 4, was the only one of the children who survived. The other children were found frozen to death in a nearby outbuilding in the Gillet Lake area.
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.
BuiltHolt and Balcom Logging Camp No.1 is built
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Lakewood. 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 Lakewood.
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.
Nobody well known was born in Lakewood itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Lakewood’s post office has been open since 1897.
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 Lakewood post office opened in 1897, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Two places: the Holt and Balcom Logging Camp No.1 (listed 1978) and the Smyth Road Bridge (1996).
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 Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
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