Jonesboro’s post office opened in 1859, and 18 of its places are on the National Register
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns · #80 of 123 in Arkansas. What drives it
Most of Jonesboro was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. 18 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 22 buildings between them. Below: 4 old photos and papers, maps from 1890 on, and the census since 1870.
The Jonesboro post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Nettleton (1884) and State College (1925), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 155 in 18702020 census: 78,576167 years
How historic is Jonesboro?
C
More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Jonesboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Jonesboro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Jonesboro is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #80 of 123 in Arkansas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Jonesboro’s overall grade.
Arkansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Arkansas town has 20.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Jonesboro’s 4.6 sits below most of its state (34% of Arkansas towns have fewer) while its 37 historic buildings outnumber those of 83% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C+. The pre-1940 share (±0.5 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Jonesboro’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Booker T Washington SchoolschoolCasey SchoolschoolDisinger-Farrville Landing StripairportEnterprise SchoolschoolForest Home SchoolschoolHope SchoolschoolJonesboro AcademyschoolJonesboro Baptist CollegeschoolNew Hope SchoolschoolOak Hill SchoolschoolOak Valley SchoolschoolPhillips SchoolschoolPine View SchoolschoolPleasant Grove SchoolschoolPleasant Hill SchoolschoolValley View Junior High SchoolschoolWoodland Collegeschool
15cemeteries and burying grounds inside Jonesboro
Holy CrossJonesboro Memorial ParkKellyMacedoniaMcDanielMount SinaiNettletonPhiladelphiaPine HillPleasant GroveRansomSharpStraw FloorTemple of IsraelWoodlawn Oaklawn
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Start Jonesboro’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Jonesboro’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The Jonesboro area was first inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous peoples. At the time of the European encounter, historic tribes included the Osage, Caddo, and Quapaw. The name for the state of Arkansas comes from the Quapaw language. The French and Spanish traders and trappers had relations with those groups.
After the United States acquired this territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, American settlers eventually made their way to an area near Jonesboro. They began exploring, hunting, trapping, and trading with local Indian tribes. The permanent settlement of Jonesboro was established shortly after 1859, when Craighead County was established.
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.
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.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Jonesboro. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1939Jonesboro sheet · 1:62,500
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Jonesboro.
Every building
Jonesboro, building by building, 1890–1919
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The Jonesboro post office opened in 1859, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Jonesboro rank for history?
Jonesboro is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #80 of 123 in Arkansas. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Jonesboro?
18 listings: 14 buildings, among them the Frierson House (listed 1973, the first), 2 historic districts, the West Washington Avenue Historic District and the Arkansas State College Historic District, with 22 contributing buildings, 1 site, and 1 structure. 37 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Jonesboro?
2% of Jonesboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.1% for an Arkansas town; the median home was built in 1991.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (18), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1880
