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History · Troy

Troy’s post office opened in 1898, and 35% of its homes were built before 1940

6 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 12 buildings. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1960 on, and the census since 1900.

1898first post office
6on the National Register
35%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Troy’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Troy began

When was Troy founded?

1898

The Troy post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Vollmer (1890), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 283 in 19002020 census: 890128 years
Founding year: the first Troy post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Troy’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 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Landmarks on the Register6 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Troy’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Troy’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 viewFarm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Ida…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the National Register

6 historic places in Troy

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

places listed
6
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
18
each building in a district counts
first listed
2001
Hotel Rietmann
Hotel RietmannTroy Downtown Historic DistrictAxel Bohman House, built 1914Troy HospitalOle Bohman House, built 1913Harry and Fern Campbell House
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Commercial Style1
Late 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements1
Late Victorian: Italianate1
Bungalow/Craftsman1
Late Victorian: Queen Anne1
Hotel RietmannLate 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements: Commercial Style
Troy Downtown Historic DistrictLate 19th and Early 20th Century American Movements
Axel Bohman HouseBungalow/Craftsman · Built 1914
Troy HospitalLate Victorian: Queen Anne
Ole Bohman HouseBuilt 1913
Harry and Fern Campbell HouseBuilding

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

The story

How Troy came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Troy.

Read it all →

The community was originally known as Huffs Gulch when J. Wesley Seat homesteaded in the area in 1885. In 1890, area businessman John P. Vollmer rechristened the area with his own surname when he brought the railroad through. Vollmer gained much of his 30,000 acres (47 sq mi; 120 km2) of land by foreclosing on the bank loans of local farmers. This made him so unpopular that in 1897, the residents decided to rename the town. Local legend states that the name Troy was selected when a Greek railroad worker offered free shots of whiskey to any who would support the name.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Troy, 1890 to 1960

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1890Post officeThe Vollmer post office opens
  3. 1891In the archiveFarm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Idaho, 1891
  4. 1898Post officeThe Vollmer post office closes
  5. 1898Post officeThe Troy post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1901In the archiveChildren with teacher outside schoolhouse at Dry Creek Ridge, near Troy, Idaho, 1901
  8. 1913BuiltOle Bohman House is built
  9. 1914BuiltAxel Bohman House is built
  10. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Troy, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1900s3 items
Farm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Idaho, 18911891Farm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Idaho, 1891Children with teacher outside schoolhouse at Dry Creek Ridge, near Troy, Idaho, 19011901Children with teacher outside schoolhouse at Dry Cree…Farm workers with steam driven threshing machine, Troy, Idaho, ca. 1902c. 1902Farm workers with steam driven threshing machine, Tro…
1910s–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
Today7 recent
02-33-21, view from moscow mountain201302-33-21, view from moscow mountain02-33-13, moscow mountain201302-33-13, moscow mountain02-33-03, moscow mountain201302-33-03, moscow mountainW. S. Smith & Company, Letterhead, 1891 - Vollmer, Idaho (now2010W. S. Smith & Company, Letterhead, 1891 - Vollmer, Id…Troy Idaho2008Troy IdahoLatah county (ID) roads2007Latah county (ID) roadsIDMap-doton-Troy2004IDMap-doton-Troy
On the map

Troy on the map in 1960

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

Troy on the 1960 USGS map1960Troy 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 Troy.

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.

Farm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Idaho, 1891
Retake this viewFarm workers threshing wheat, Troy, Idaho, 1891, 1891

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Troy, census by census

02004006008001900192019401960198020002020890

Grew from 283 people in 1900 to 890 in 2020, 3 times over.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Troy’s post office has been open since 1898. Another post office, Vollmer, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Vollmer
1890–1898
Troy
1898–today
18901960today

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

Questions about Troy’s history

What year was Troy founded?

The Troy post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Troy?

6 listings: 5 buildings, among them the Hotel Rietmann (listed 2001, the first), and 1 historic district, the Troy Downtown Historic District, with 12 contributing buildings. 18 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 (10), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (6), 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.