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B−History
History · Davisboro

Davisboro’s post office opened in 1821, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 52% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1974 on, and the census since 1880.

1821first post office
0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Davisboro’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Davisboro began

When was Davisboro founded?

1821

The Davisboro post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 131 in 18802020 census: 1,832205 years

How historic is Davisboro?

B−

More historic than 52% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Davisboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Davisboro’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Davisboro is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Davisboro’s overall grade.
Founding era1821, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 194014.5% of homes (±5.1) · typical GA town 3.8% · U.S. 8.4%BNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical GA town 10.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 52%
NewerOlder

Georgia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Georgia town has 10.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Davisboro’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (16% of Georgia towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.1 points). 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 Davisboro’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1930 and 1990, then grew 4-fold.Deep rootsA post office since 1821: 205 years of Davisboro.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Davisboro’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Davisboro’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 photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewJordan Cabin, Georgia Highway 231: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Davisboro, census by census

05001,0001,5002,00018801900192019401960198020002020654 in 1930Low: 407

Lost a third of its people between 1930 and 1990, then grew 4-fold.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Timeline

Davisboro, 1821 to 2010

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1821Post officeThe Davisboro post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1934Born hereLuther "Snake Boy" Johnson is born here
  5. 1974On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 21st century
  7. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 2,010
The story

How Davisboro came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Davisboro.

Read it all →

A post office called Davisboro(ugh) has been in operation since 1821. The community most likely was named after a pioneer settler with the surname Davis. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated the place in 1894 as the "Town of Davisboro".

On May 18, 1922, Charles Atkins, a 15-year-old African-American boy, was tortured and burnt alive by a white mob some 2,000 people strong after killing a white woman.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Davisboro, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Jordan Cabin, Georgia Highway 231Date?Jordan Cabin, Georgia Highway 231
On the map

Davisboro on the map, 1974 to 1981

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

Davisboro on the 1974 USGS mapDavisboro on the 1981 USGS map1974Davisboro 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 Davisboro.

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.

Jordan Cabin, Georgia Highway 231
Retake this viewJordan Cabin, Georgia Highway 231

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

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Davisboro’s history

What year was Davisboro founded?

The Davisboro post office opened in 1821, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Davisboro rank for history?

Davisboro is more historic than 52% of U.S. towns. 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.

How old are the homes in Davisboro?

15% of Davisboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.1 points), against a typical 3.8% for a Georgia town; the median home was built in 1994.

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).

From the Library of Congress (1), 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) 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.