Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Bank of Cairo. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1907 on, and the census since 1880.
The Cairo post office opened in 1856, 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 Cairo’s history is told.
Peaked at 668 in 1910; 176 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cairo’s Wikipedia page.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cairo. 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 Cairo.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cairo.
The town was named by its earliest settlers, who were Scots Presbyterians, for the city of Cairo, Egypt, owing to the presence of water and fertile land at the site. Cairo was incorporated in 1895. The North Bend Rail Trail passes through the town.
The former Bank of Cairo building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996.
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.
In the archiveCairo, West Virginia 1899
In the archiveThe History of the Standard Oil Company Vol 2 - Laying a six-inch pipe line
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveNorth Fork Hughes River3 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Cairo’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.
Cairo’s post office has been open since 1856.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Cairo post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Bank of Cairo (listed 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 (8), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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2020
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