Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Milan

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 · Milan

Milan’s post office opened in 1889, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1972 on and the census since 1910.

1889first post office
0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Milan began

When was Milan founded?

1889

The Milan post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 287 in 19102020 census: 613137 years
Founding year: the first Milan post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Milan’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 Milan are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,115 in 1980; 613 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Milan’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Milan’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Milan’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
People over time

Milan, census by census

02004006008001,0001,200192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,115

Peaked at 1,115 in 1980; 613 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Milan came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Milan.

Read it all →

Milan was founded in the 1880s when the railroad was extended to that point. The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Milan as a town in 1891. The city was named after Milan, in Italy.

On May 25, 1919, at the age of 72, a black man named Berry Washington defended two young black girls who were attacked by two drunken white men. A mob of 75 to 100 white men hung him from a post, then shot his corpse to pieces. In spite of a $1,000 reward offered by Governor Dorsey, no one was ever arrested.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Milan, 1889 to 1980

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Milan post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1956Born hereWayne Cooper is born here
  5. 1972On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 1,115
By decade

Milan, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Milan, GA2012Milan, GAGAMap-doton-Milan2005GAMap-doton-Milan
On the map

Milan on the map in 1972

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

Milan on the 1972 USGS map1972Milan 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 Milan.

Questions about Milan’s history

What year was Milan founded?

The Milan post office opened in 1889, 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 Wikimedia Commons (2), 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.