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History · Salem

Salem’s post office opened in 1838, and 48% of its homes were built before 1940

5 places in town are on the National Register.

1838first post office
5on the National Register
48%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Salem began

When was Salem founded?

1838

The Salem post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 394188 years
Founding year: the first Salem post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Salem’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 Salem are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Salem’s homes were built before 1946.Deep rootsA post office since 1838: 188 years of Salem.Landmarks on the Register5 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Salem’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Salem’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
The story

How Salem came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Salem.

Read it all →

Salem was settled originally by Quakers with the intent that it be a community of Friends. In 1835 Aaron Street, while wending his way westward, came upon an uninhabited spot and declared "Now have mine eyes beheld a country teeming with every good thing…Hither will I come with my flocks and my herds, with my children and my children's children, and our city shall be called Salem, for thus was the city of our fathers, even near unto the seacoast." Independently another Quaker, Isaac Pigeon, who may have visited the spot before Street, brought his family to the area. They became the first citizens of Salem, and with Peter Boyer, began to recruit other Quakers to migrate westward to join them. As early as 1837, Friends meetings were held in private homes, and after the village was laid out in 1839 by Aaron Street Jr., and Peter Boyer, a meeting house was built. From the early years membe…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Salem, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Image The Cook- Joohnson House2015Image The Cook- Joohnson HouseImage The Collins-Bond House2015Image The Collins-Bond HouseImage The Bicksler Block2015Image The Bicksler BlockLewelling2010LewellingSalem iowa2008Salem iowaIAMap-doton-Salem2004IAMap-doton-Salem
On the National Register

5 historic places in Salem

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
5
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
7
each building in a district counts
first listed
2010
Bicksler Block
Bicksler BlockFarmers Savings BankCollins-Bond HouseIsaac and Agnes (Bells) Reeves House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Italianate2
Greek Revival2
Romanesque1
Classical Revival1
Bicksler BlockRomanesque
Cook-Johnson HouseGreek Revival
Farmers Savings BankClassical Revival
Collins-Bond HouseGreek Revival
Isaac and Agnes (Bells) Reeves HouseItalianate

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Salem’s post office has been open since 1838.

Gone or out of use
Salemlocale
1cemetery inside Salem
Salem South

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

Questions about Salem’s history

What year was Salem founded?

The Salem post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Salem?

5 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Bicksler Block (listed 2010, the first). 7 historic buildings in all.

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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.