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History · Midvale

Midvale’s post office opened in 1903, and 26% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1911 on, and the census since 1920.

1903first post office
0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Midvale’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Midvale began

When was Midvale founded?

1903

The Midvale post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 278 in 19202020 census: 193123 years
Founding year: the first Midvale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Midvale’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.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Midvale’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewMidvale Bridge, Bridge Street Spanning …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Midvale came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Midvale.

Read it all →

The city was named when the valley in which it stands was called Middle Valley. The first settlers came in 1868 (The Keithley and Towell families) and in 1876 a post office and school were begun. In 1884 the Middle Valley Ditch was undertaken: in 1885 the first store was built, and in 1898 the P&IN Rail Road came through. From 1870 to 1900 stock raising was the chief industry, but today Midvale serves a diversified farming area. Midvale is the hometown of former U.S. Senator Larry Craig.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Midvale, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Midvale Bridge, Bridge Street Spanning Weiser RiverDate?Midvale Bridge, Bridge Street Spanning Weiser River
Today3 recent
Midvale Community Park Playground2017Midvale Community Park PlaygroundCrab spider2010Crab spiderIDMap-doton-Midvale2004IDMap-doton-Midvale
On the map

Midvale on the map, 1957 to 1986

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

Midvale on the 1957 USGS mapMidvale on the 1986 USGS map1957Crane Creek Reservoir sheet · 1:62,500

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

Every building

Midvale, building by building, 1911

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Midvale fire insurance map, 1911, sheet 11911Sheet 1 of 2
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

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.

Midvale Bridge, Bridge Street Spanning Weiser River
Retake this viewMidvale Bridge, Bridge Street Spanning Weiser River

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Midvale, census by census

0100200300192019401960198020002020Peak: 278

Between 110 and 278 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Questions about Midvale’s history

What year was Midvale founded?

The Midvale post office opened in 1903, 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 (3), the Library of Congress (1), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.