Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Herman August Meyer House and the National Bank of Davis. Below: 6 old photos and papers from 1885 on.
The Davis post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name.
From Wikipedia’s history of Davis.
Davis was named either for Senator Henry Gassaway Davis, or for his family generally.
The Herman August Meyer House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.
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 archiveBirth of a city
Born hereKarl Lashley is born here
In the archiveGreat Falls of the Blackwater, West Vir
Born hereEddie Baker is born here
In the archiveSt. Barnabas (Episcopal) Church, Davis, W.V
Born hereFrankie Yankovic is born here
In the archiveBlackwater Lodge, Blackwater Falls State Park, Davis, West Virginia (91227)4 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1930s. 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 Davis’ 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.
Davis’s post office has been open since 1885.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Davis post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Two places: the Herman August Meyer House (listed 2010) and the National Bank of Davis (2020).
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), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1892
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