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History · St. Mary's

St. Mary's’ post office opened in 1955

Most of St. Mary's was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: maps from 1952 on and the census since 1960.

1955first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How St. Mary's began

When was St. Mary's founded?

1955

The St. Mary's post office opened in 1955, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1967. Another post office, Andreafsky (1913), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 225 in 19602020 census: 59971 years
Founding year: the first St. Mary's post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1967.

What stands out about St. Mary's’ past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of St. Mary's are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s St. Mary's, and 2 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start St. Mary's’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how St. Mary's’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Andreafsky
1913–1934
Andreafski
1951–1954
Saint Marys
1955–today
19101970today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Saint MarysTukachak

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

The story so far

St. Mary's, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of St. Mary's yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

St. Mary's (Central Yupik: Negeqliq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. The adjacent village of Andreafsky (historically known as Clear River) joined with St. Mary's in 1980. As of the 2020 census, St. Mary's had a population of 599. Within Saint Mary's there are two federally recognized tribes the Algaaciq Native Village and the Yupiit of Andreafsky.

Its first post office opened in 1955. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 507 to 599 (+18%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

St. Mary's, 1913 to 1955

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1913Post officeThe Andreafsky post office opens
  3. 1934Post officeThe Andreafsky post office closes
  4. 1951Post officeThe Andreafski post office opens
  5. 1952On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1954Post officeThe Andreafski post office closes
  7. 1955Post officeThe Saint Marys post office opens
By decade

St. Mary's, decade by decade

Today9 recent
The Yukon River, Alaskac. 2019The Yukon River, AlaskaSanta and Mrs. Claus exit a C-130H Hercules aircraft at St. Mary's, Alaska, Dec. 5, 20152015Santa and Mrs. Claus exit a C-130H Hercules aircraft …Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-052015Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-05Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-05 032015Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-0…Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-05 012015Operation Santa Claus returns to St. Mary's 2015-12-0…OP SANTA 20152015OP SANTA 2015St. Mary's Terminal2013St. Mary's TerminalWaiting for the plane in2012Waiting for the plane inSt Marys AK2010St Marys AK
On the map

St. Mary's on the map in 1952

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of St. Mary's.

St. Mary's on the 1952 USGS map1952Kwiguk A-3 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 St. Mary's.

People over time

St. Mary's, census by census

01002003004005006001960198020002020599

Grew from 225 people in 1960 to 599 in 2020.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

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

Questions about St. Mary's’ history

What year was St. Mary's founded?

The St. Mary's post office opened in 1955, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1967.

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), 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.