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PromiseCityIowaCommunityCenterPhoto: PopePompus · CC BY-SA 4.0
–Not graded
History · Promise City

Promise City’s post office opened in 1856, and 56% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1954 on, and the census since 1880.

1856first post office
0on the National Register
56%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Promise City’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Promise City began

When was Promise City founded?

1856

The Promise City post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 203 in 18802020 census: 88170 years
Founding year: the first Promise City post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Promise City’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.Old housesHalf of Promise City’s homes were built before 1938.Boom and bustPeaked at 274 in 1910; 88 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Promise City’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Promise City’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewPromise City Iowa 1910s: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Promise City, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Promise City yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Promise City is a city in Wayne County, Iowa, United States. The population was 88 at the time of the 2020 census.

Its first post office opened in 1856. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 111 to 88 (-21%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

People over time

Promise City, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 274

Peaked at 274 in 1910; 88 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Timeline

Promise City, 1856 to 1954

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1856Post officeThe Promise City post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 274
  5. 1915In the archivePromise City Iowa 1910s
  6. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Promise City, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s1 item
Promise City Iowa 1910sc. 1915Promise City Iowa 1910s
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today3 recent
PromiseCityIowaCommunityCenter2024PromiseCityIowaCommunityCenterAmyRobertsonPromiseCityIowa2024AmyRobertsonPromiseCityIowaIAMap-doton-PromiseCity2004IAMap-doton-PromiseCity
On the map

Promise City on the map, 1954 to 1981

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

Promise City on the 1954 USGS mapPromise City on the 1977 USGS mapPromise City on the 1981 USGS map1954Centerville sheet · 1:250,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Promise City.

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.

Promise City Iowa 1910s
Retake this viewPromise City Iowa 1910s, c. 1915

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

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Promise City’s post office has been open since 1856.

Gone or out of use
Promise Citylocale

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Promise City’s history

What year was Promise City founded?

The Promise City post office opened in 1856, 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 (4), 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.