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History · Hope

Hope’s post office opened in 1897, and 16% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 29 buildings. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1920.

1897first post office
1on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
8old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Hope’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Hope began

When was Hope founded?

1897

The Hope post office opened in 1897, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 44 in 19202020 census: 161129 years
Founding year: the first Hope post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Hope’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1920 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.A historic districtThe Hope Historic District takes in 29 historic buildings.
★ What stands out · People over time

Hope, census by census

010020019201940196019802000202044 in 1920Low: 15

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1920 and 1930, then grew more than tenfold.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hope’s Wikipedia page.

On the National Register

1 listing protects 29 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
29
each building in a district counts
first listed
1972
Hope Historic District
Hope Historic District
Districts
Hope Historic DistrictDistrict

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Hope came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Hope.

Read it all →

"Hope City" was a mining camp for Resurrection Creek, established in 1896. The Hope post office began operating in 1897. Portions of the town were destroyed in the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.

The Hope Community Library was established in 1987. It resides in the Historic Hope schoolhouse, originally built in 1938.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Hope, 1897 to 2010

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1897Post officeThe Hope post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1911In the archiveHope, Alaska
  5. 1933In the archiveALASKA COMMERCIAL CO. STORE (GENERAL STORE, BUILT 1898) AND MORRIS ROADHOUSE (SEAVIEW BAR…
  6. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 21st century
  8. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 192
By decade

Hope, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s–1930s8 items
Hope, Alaska1911Hope, AlaskaGeo. Roll's garden1911Geo. Roll's gardenG. Roll's garden1911G. Roll's gardenALASKA COMMERCIAL CO. STORE (GENERAL STORE, BUILT 1898) AND MORRIS ROADHOUSE (SEAVIEW BAR, BUILT CA. 1900), MAIN STREET…1933ALASKA COMMERCIAL CO. STORE (GENERAL STORE, BUILT 189…CRAWFORD HOUSE (HATCH HOUSE, HUEY HOUSE), NORTH AND EAST SIDES - Village of Hope, Hope, Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK1933CRAWFORD HOUSE (HATCH HOUSE, HUEY HOUSE), NORTH AND E…CRAWFORD HOUSE (HATCH HOUSE, HUEY HOUSE, BUILT CA. 1910, MOVED FROM TIDAL FLATS IN 1973), CORNER SECOND AND B STS., EAS…1933CRAWFORD HOUSE (HATCH HOUSE, HUEY HOUSE, BUILT CA. 19…HERSHEY BARN (BUILT CA. 1916, MOVED FROM B ST. AFTER 1964), NORTH SIDE AND WEST FRONT - Village of Hope, Hope, Kenai Pe…1933HERSHEY BARN (BUILT CA. 1916, MOVED FROM B ST. AFTER …LOGMAN HOUSE (UZZELL HOUSE, BUILT CA. 1924), MAIN STREET, WEST FRONT - Village of Hope, Hope, Kenai Peninsula Borough, …1933LOGMAN HOUSE (UZZELL HOUSE, BUILT CA. 1924), MAIN STR…
1940s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today4 recent
Hope Alaska Cafe2008Hope Alaska CafeHOPE HISTORIC DISTRICT2008HOPE HISTORIC DISTRICTHope AK - welcome sign2004Hope AK - welcome signAKMap-doton-Hope2004AKMap-doton-Hope
On the map

Hope on the map, 1951 to 1993

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hope. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Hope on the 1951 USGS mapHope on the 1993 USGS map1951Seward D-8 sheet · 1:63,360

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hope.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Hope, Alaska
Retake this viewHope, Alaska, 1911

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hope’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Hope’s post office has been open since 1897.

Gone or out of use
Pearson Minemine
1cemetery inside Hope
Hope

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Hope’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewHope, Alaska: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

SunriseIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Hope’s history

What year was Hope founded?

The Hope post office opened in 1897, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Hope?

One place: the Hope Historic District (listed 1972).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (9), the Library of Congress (3), 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.