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History · Pitts

Pitts’ post office opened in 1888, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1974 on and the census since 1910.

1888first post office
0on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Pitts began

When was Pitts founded?

1888

The Pitts post office opened in 1888, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 279 in 19102020 census: 252138 years
Founding year: the first Pitts post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Pitts’ 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 Pitts are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 397 in 1950; 252 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pitts’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pitts’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

Pitts, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020Peak: 397

Peaked at 397 in 1950; 252 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

The story

How Pitts came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pitts.

Read it all →

The community which later became Pitts began as a settlement in the area of the home of Lyston Clyde Peebles Sr., two miles east of the Alapaha River. Brock Owens and Ashley J. Pitts operated the first store there in the mid-1880s. Pitts was called Kings' Crossing at the time. When application was made for a post office, the Postmaster General preferred a shorter name. J.A. King suggested the name Pitts, in honor of his son-in-law, Ashley J. Pitts. The name was accepted, and the post office was established on 1 November 1888 with Pitts as postmaster.

The Georgia General Assembly incorporated Pitts as a town in 1905.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Pitts, 1888 to 1974

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1888Post officeThe Pitts post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950CensusPopulation peaks at 397
  5. 1974On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Pitts, decade by decade

Today2 recent
US280wGA90wRoadSigns-Pitts2012US280wGA90wRoadSigns-PittsGAMap-doton-Pitts2005GAMap-doton-Pitts
On the map

Pitts on the map, 1974 to 1981

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

Pitts on the 1974 USGS mapPitts on the 1981 USGS map1974Pitts 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 Pitts.

Famous people

Famous people close to Pitts

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

See all →
Roger KingdomAmerican hurdler · b. 1962
H
Hank MobleyAmerican saxophonist · b. 1930
Forrest TownsAmerican hurdler · b. 1914
Vincent ShermanAmerican film director · b. 1906
Betty ShabazzAmerican educator and wife of Malcolm X · b. 1934
Joe WilliamsAmerican jazz singer · b. 1918

Questions about Pitts’ history

What year was Pitts founded?

The Pitts post office opened in 1888, 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, 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.