Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Faunsdale

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Faunsdale

Faunsdale’s post office opened in 1841, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 2 buildings. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1968 on, and the census since 1890.

1841first post office
1on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Faunsdale’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Faunsdale began

When was Faunsdale founded?

1841

The Faunsdale post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 211 in 18902020 census: 90185 years
Founding year: the first Faunsdale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Faunsdale’s past

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

Boom and bustPeaked at 352 in 1910; 90 people lived here in 2020.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1880–1933.Deep rootsA post office since 1841: 185 years of Faunsdale.
★ What stands out · People over time

Faunsdale, census by census

01002003001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 352

Peaked at 352 in 1910; 90 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

By decade

Faunsdale, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s1 item
St. Michael's Faunsdale 21880St. Michael's Faunsdale 2
1890s–1920snothing 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
1930s11 items
CEILING TREATMENT IN FRONT HALL, FIRST FLOOR - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-F…1933CEILING TREATMENT IN FRONT HALL, FIRST FLOOR - Cedar …CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CENTER OF CEILING IN HALL - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-…1933CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CENTER OF CEILING IN HALL - Cedar…CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CENTER OF CEILING IN LIVING ROOM - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS …1933CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CENTER OF CEILING IN LIVING ROOM …CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CORNICE TREATMENT IN LIVING ROOM - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS …1933CLOSE- UP DETAIL OF CORNICE TREATMENT IN LIVING ROOM …CLOSE- UP FRONT (EAST), SOUTH SIDE - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-FAUN.V,1-31933CLOSE- UP FRONT (EAST), SOUTH SIDE - Cedar Grove, Uni…CLOSE- UP OF EAST ELEVATION (FRONT) - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-FAUN.V,1-21933CLOSE- UP OF EAST ELEVATION (FRONT) - Cedar Grove, Un…DETAIL OF DINING ROOM DOOR IN WEST WALL (OPENS INTO HALL) - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL …1933DETAIL OF DINING ROOM DOOR IN WEST WALL (OPENS INTO H…DETAIL OF MANTEL ON WEST WALL OF S. W. BED ROOM, SECOND FLOOR - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County,…1933DETAIL OF MANTEL ON WEST WALL OF S. W. BED ROOM, SECO…EAST ELEVATION (FRONT) AND NORTH SIDE (GENERAL VIEW) - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS …1933EAST ELEVATION (FRONT) AND NORTH SIDE (GENERAL VIEW) …FIREPLACE IN LIVING ROOM (W. OF HALL) - Norwood Plantation, County Road 54, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-F…1933FIREPLACE IN LIVING ROOM (W. OF HALL) - Norwood Plant…FRONT AND EAST SIDE, FACES NORTH - Norwood Plantation, County Road 54, Faunsdale, Marengo County, AL HABS ALA,46-FAUN.V…1933FRONT AND EAST SIDE, FACES NORTH - Norwood Plantation…
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
Timeline

Faunsdale, 1841 to 1968

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1841Post officeThe Faunsdale post office opens
  3. 1880In the archiveSt. Michael's Faunsdale 2
  4. 20th century
  5. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 352
  6. 1933In the archiveCEILING TREATMENT IN FRONT HALL, FIRST FLOOR - Cedar Grove, Uniontown Road, Faunsdale, Ma…
  7. 1968On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Faunsdale came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Faunsdale.

Read it all →

A post office called Faunsdale has been in operation since 1841. The town was named for nearby Faunsdale Plantation, named after a Roman god and owned since 1843 by Dr. Thomas Alexander Harrison. The town was named in his honor.

The plantation had been founded in the 1830s by Messrs Pearson and Henry Augustine Tayloe. The latter was also the local land agent for his older brothers Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, William Henry Tayloe, Edward Thornton Tayloe, and George Plater Tayloe, who all invested some of their great wealth in several plantations in this area. A 20th-century historian said they were "considered the most important pioneer cotton planters of the Canebrake, as to the extent of their enterprise there."

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

On the map

Faunsdale on the map, 1968 to 1986

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

Faunsdale on the 1968 USGS mapFaunsdale on the 1979 USGS mapFaunsdale on the 1986 USGS map1968Uniontown West sheet · 1:24,000

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

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.

St. Michael's Faunsdale 2
Retake this viewSt. Michael's Faunsdale 2, 1880

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Faunsdale

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1993
Cedar Grove Plantation
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Greek Revival1
Cedar Grove PlantationGreek Revival

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Faunsdale

Nobody well known was born in Faunsdale itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Mia HammAmerican soccer player · b. 1972
Jeff SessionsAmerican politician and lawyer · b. 1946
Ralph AbernathyAmerican civil rights activist and minister · b. 1926
T
Tony CoxAmerican actor · b. 1958
Theo RatliffAmerican basketball player · b. 1973
Jo BonnerAlabama Republican politician · b. 1959
Help out

Finish Faunsdale’s story

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewSt. Michael's Faunsdale 2: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Faunsdale’s history

What year was Faunsdale founded?

The Faunsdale post office opened in 1841, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Faunsdale?

One place: the Cedar Grove Plantation (listed 1993).

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 (12), 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.