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History · Sopchoppy

Sopchoppy’s post office opened in 1848, and 3 of its places are on the National Register

Most of Sopchoppy was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Its Register listings are the Sopchoppy High School Gymnasium, Old, the Sopchoppy School and the Sopchoppy Depot. Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1960.

1848first post office
3on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Sopchoppy began

When was Sopchoppy founded?

1848

The Sopchoppy post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1894.

First census: 450 in 19602020 census: 426178 years
Founding year: the first Sopchoppy post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1894.The full story ↓

What stands out about Sopchoppy’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 Sopchoppy are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1848: 178 years of Sopchoppy.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Sopchoppy’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sopchoppy’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
Timeline

Sopchoppy, 1848 to 1972

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1848Post officeThe Sopchoppy post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1924BuiltSopchoppy School is built
  5. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Sopchoppy came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Sopchoppy.

Read it all →

The city's name is a corruption of "Lockchoppe", derived from the Muskogee lokchapi ("lokcha" meaning "acorn", and "api" meaning "stem"), which was the old name of the nearby river.

Mention of Sopchoppy can be found in 1850, in a runaway slave ad published by Henry Mash in the May 7, 1850 Florida Sentinel newspaper of Tallahassee. This is nearly 50 years earlier than the 1894 claim noted below.

Sopchoppy came into existence in 1894 after the CT&G Railroad Company built a railway through the area. It platted the city on property it already owned in the area, across the river from Greenough. To encourage people to settle the area, the railroad engaged in an advertising campaign, exaggerating the quality of the soil and climate.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Sopchoppy, decade by decade

Today4 recent
Old fire engine on roadside2026Old fire engine on roadsideSopchoppy River FL south012018Sopchoppy River FL south01Sopchoppy River FL north012018Sopchoppy River FL north01FLMap-doton-Sopchoppy2004FLMap-doton-Sopchoppy
On the map

Sopchoppy on the map in 1972

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Sopchoppy.

Sopchoppy on the 1972 USGS map1972Sopchoppy 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 Sopchoppy.

On the National Register

3 historic places in Sopchoppy

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
5
each building in a district counts
first listed
1990
Sopchoppy High School Gymnasium, Old
Sopchoppy High School Gymnasium, OldSopchoppy School, built 1924Sopchoppy Depot
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Masonry Vernacular2
Sopchoppy High School Gymnasium, OldMasonry Vernacular
Sopchoppy SchoolMasonry Vernacular · Built 1924
Sopchoppy DepotBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Sopchoppy, census by census

01002003004005001960198020002020Peak: 460

Between 367 and 460 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Questions about Sopchoppy’s history

What year was Sopchoppy founded?

The Sopchoppy post office opened in 1848, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1894.

What is on the National Register in Sopchoppy?

Three places: the Sopchoppy High School Gymnasium, Old (listed 1990), the Sopchoppy School (2001) and the Sopchoppy Depot (2017).

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 (4), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.