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History · Orrville

Orrville’s post office opened in 1850

Most of Orrville was built recently: 8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1961. Below: 10 old photos and papers, maps from 1975 on, and the census since 1880.

1850first post office
0on the National Register
8%homes built before 1940
10old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Orrville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Orrville began

When was Orrville founded?

1850

The Orrville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 270 in 18802020 census: 150176 years
Founding year: the first Orrville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Orrville’s past

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

Boom and bustPeaked at 422 in 1960; 150 people lived here in 2020.Mystery photos10 old photos have no date. Neighbors can guess the decade.Old housesHalf of Orrville’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · People over time

Orrville, census by census

010020030040018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 422

Peaked at 422 in 1960; 150 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Help out

Start Orrville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo10 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewCochran House, County Road 21: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Orrville, in brief

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

Orrville is a town in Dallas County, Alabama, United States. At the 2020 census, the population was 150. According to the 1910 U.S. census, Orrville incorporated in 1908, though it was listed as an incorporated community prior to that.

Its first post office opened in 1850. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 204 to 150 (-26%).

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

Timeline

Orrville, 1850 to 1975

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850Post officeThe Orrville post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1960CensusPopulation peaks at 422
  5. 1975On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Orrville, decade by decade

Date unknown10 to date
Cochran House, County Road 21Date?Cochran House, County Road 21Seal House, County Road 33 vicinityDate?Seal House, County Road 33 vicinityBland House, County Road 11 vicinityDate?Bland House, County Road 11 vicinityCraig-Wilson House, County Road 2Date?Craig-Wilson House, County Road 2Mill-Albritton House, State Highway 22Date?Mill-Albritton House, State Highway 22Smith-Sutton House, State Highway 22Date?Smith-Sutton House, State Highway 22Molette Houses, County Roads 33 & 31 vicinityDate?Molette Houses, County Roads 33 & 31 vicinityLewis McMillan House, County Road 31Date?Lewis McMillan House, County Road 31Ben Ellis Dunaway House, State Highway 22Date?Ben Ellis Dunaway House, State Highway 22Kelley-Bland-Ward House, County Road 2 vicinityDate?Kelley-Bland-Ward House, County Road 2 vicinity
On the map

Orrville on the map, 1975 to 1986

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

Orrville on the 1975 USGS mapOrrville on the 1986 USGS map1975Selma SW 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 Orrville.

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.

Cochran House, County Road 21
Retake this viewCochran House, County Road 21

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

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Orrville’s history

What year was Orrville founded?

The Orrville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 the Library of Congress (10), 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.