Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1966 on, and the census since 1910.
Menlo dates its founding to 1883 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1910.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Menlo’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Menlo.
Menlo was platted in 1883. A post office called Menlo has been in operation since 1886. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Menlo as a town in 1903. The city's founder, Captain Andrew Lawrence, named it after Menlo Park, New Jersey, in honor of inventor Thomas Edison.
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.
In the archiveFern Cliff Lodge, Cloudland Park, Summer Home of C.Y. Harvey
In the archiveMenlo, Georgia (circa 1900)
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Menlo. 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 Menlo.
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 Menlo’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 355 and 611 people in every census since 1910.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Menlo’s Wikipedia page.
Nobody well known was born in Menlo itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
In 1883, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Menlo’s post office opened in 1886, and the census of 1910 counted 376 people here.
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 Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (2), 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.
1900
2017
2017
2017
2017
2017
2005