Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Jerome was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. Its Register listing is the Jerome Elementary School No. 22. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1936 on, and the census since 1920.
The Jerome post office opened in 1920, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Blissville (1900), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1939Post office
1939Ginning machinery. Jerome, Arkansas
1939Railroad station. Jerome, Arkansas
1939Main street. Jerome, Arkansas
1939Cotton gin at Jerome, Arkansas
1939Main street of Jerome, Arkansas
1939Shed for agricultural machinery. Jerome, Arkansas
1939Post office and general store. Jerome, Arkansas
1939Men in front of general store
1939Residents of Jerome, Arkansas in front of general sto…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Main street. Jer…
1939Untitled photo, possibly related to: Men in front of …From Wikipedia’s history of Jerome.
The small town was formerly named Blissville after a lumber company who established the sawmill town. During World War II, Jerome was home to a Japanese American internment camp, the Jerome War Relocation Center (1942–1944), designed by Edward F. Neild of Shreveport, Louisiana, and later converted into a prison camp for captured German soldiers.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jerome. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Jerome.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Jerome’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Between 24 and 391 people in every census since 1920.
11 censuses, 1920–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Jerome’s Wikipedia page.
Jerome had its own post office from 1920 to 1973. Another post office, Blissville, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Jerome post office opened in 1920, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Jerome Elementary School No. 22 (listed 2005).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (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.
