Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Vandervoort

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 · Vandervoort

Vandervoort’s post office opened in 1898, and 18% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1959 on and the census since 1970.

1898first post office
0on the National Register
18%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Vandervoort began

When was Vandervoort founded?

1898

The Vandervoort post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Janssen (1897), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 108 in 19702020 census: 115128 years
Founding year: the first Vandervoort post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Vandervoort’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Vandervoort are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Vandervoort’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Vandervoort, in brief

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

Vandervoort is a town in Polk County, Arkansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, Vandervoort had a population of 115. The place is named in honor of the mother of an important early-20th-century railway financier, Jan de Goeijen. Her maiden name was Van der Voort.

Its first post office opened in 1898. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 87 to 115 (+32%).

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

Timeline

Vandervoort, 1897 to 1959

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1897Post officeThe Janssen post office opens
  3. 1898Post officeThe Janssen post office closes
  4. 1898Post officeThe Vandervoort post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1959On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

Vandervoort on the map, 1959 to 1984

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

Vandervoort on the 1959 USGS mapVandervoort on the 1984 USGS map1959Cove 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 Vandervoort.

People over time

Vandervoort, census by census

0100198020002020Peak: 120

Between 87 and 120 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Vandervoort

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

See all →
Eurith D. RiversAmerican politician: Governor of Georgia · b. 1895
Wes WatkinsAmerican politician · b. 1938
Gail DaviesAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1948
Collin RayeAmerican country music singer · b. 1959
Effiegene Locke WingoAmerican politician · b. 1883
Norris GoffRadio and film comedian · b. 1906
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Vandervoort’s post office has been open since 1898. Another post office, Janssen, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Janssen
1897–1898
Vandervoort
1898–today
18901960today

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

Questions about Vandervoort’s history

What year was Vandervoort founded?

The Vandervoort post office opened in 1898, 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 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.