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History · Nauvoo

Nauvoo’s post office opened in 1882

Most of Nauvoo was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1949 on, and the census since 1910.

1882first post office
0on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
4old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Nauvoo’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Nauvoo began

When was Nauvoo founded?

1882

The Nauvoo post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1888.

First census: 392 in 19102020 census: 185144 years
Founding year: the first Nauvoo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1888.The full story ↓

What stands out about Nauvoo’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 4 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 648 in 1930; 185 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Nauvoo’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Nauvoo’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewEXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FR…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Nauvoo, census by census

0100200300400500600700192019401960198020002020Peak: 648

Peaked at 648 in 1930; 185 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Nauvoo came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Nauvoo.

Read it all →

The town of Nauvoo was founded in 1888, during the construction of the Northern Alabama Railway, and was formerly a center of coal mining. The town grew out of isolated agricultural settlements on the Walker County-Winston County line, which had been known unofficially as Blackwell's Crossing and Ingle Mills (or Ingle's Mill) after prominent local landowners. Railroad construction drove the development of the town center on Joshua Blackwell's property, but he declined to have the new town be named officially in his honor. The local resident Tom Carroll suggested the name "Nauvoo," after Nauvoo, Illinois — a city founded by Mormon prophet Joseph Smith in 1839 and later the site of an Icarian colony settlement — reportedly "because he had admired the [Illinois] town... in his earlier travels through that state." By 1891, the town was mentioned in the Winston Herald as "Nauvoo, a flourishi…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Nauvoo, 1882 to 1949

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Nauvoo post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1907Born hereBen Sankey is born here
  5. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 648
  6. 1933In the archiveEXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FRONT LAWN AND FRONT (EAST) AND SIDE (SOUTH) ELEVATI…
  7. 1949On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Nauvoo, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s3 items
EXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FRONT LAWN AND FRONT (EAST) AND SIDE (SOUTH) ELEVATIONS - William S. Cook House, W…1933EXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FRONT LAWN AND F…EXTERIOR VIEW, FRONT FACADE (AT FAR RIGHT) OF THE COMMERCIAL BLOCK STREETSCAPE - Harbin Hotel, Carbon Hill Road andWalk…1933EXTERIOR VIEW, FRONT FACADE (AT FAR RIGHT) OF THE COM…EXTERIOR VIEW, FRONT FACADE (AT FAR RIGHT) OF THE COMMERCIAL BLOCK STREETSCAPE - Harbin Hotel, Carbon Hill Road andWalk…1933EXTERIOR VIEW, FRONT FACADE (AT FAR RIGHT) OF THE COM…
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
Date unknown1 to date
William S. Cook House, Walker County Road 11Date?William S. Cook House, Walker County Road 11
Today2 recent
Coalmine Nauvoo resized2006Coalmine Nauvoo resizedALMap-doton-Nauvoo2004ALMap-doton-Nauvoo
On the map

Nauvoo on the map, 1949 to 2000

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

Nauvoo on the 1949 USGS mapNauvoo on the 1950 USGS mapNauvoo on the 1981 USGS mapNauvoo on the 2000 USGS map1949Nauvoo 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 Nauvoo.

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.

EXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FRONT LAWN AND FRONT (EAST) AND SIDE (SOUTH) ELEVATIONS - William S. Cook House, W…
Retake this viewEXTERIOR OVERVIEW OF SETTING SHOWING FRONT LAWN AND FRONT (EAST) AND SIDE (SOUTH) ELEVATIONS - William S. Cook House, W…, 1933

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

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Nauvoo’s post office has been open since 1882.

Gone or out of use
Black Creek MinesmineNauvoo Junior High Schoolschool

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

Questions about Nauvoo’s history

What year was Nauvoo founded?

The Nauvoo post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1888.

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 (5), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.