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History · New Haven

New Haven’s post office opened in 1819, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

1819first post office
0on the National Register
11%homes built before 1940
Quick answers

How New Haven began

When was New Haven founded?

1819

The New Haven post office opened in 1819, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 399207 years
Founding year: the first New Haven post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about New Haven’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start New Haven’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The story

How New Haven came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of New Haven.

Read it all →

Before the New Haven vicinity was settled, it was inhabited by multiple indigenous cultures. Some countryside southeast of the village near the Wabash was formerly the location of a village of a Late Woodland people known as the "Duffy Complex"; the location is now an archaeological site known as the Duffy site.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

New Haven, decade by decade

Famous people

Famous people close to New Haven

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

See all →
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Questions about New Haven’s history

What year was New Haven founded?

The New Haven post office opened in 1819, 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, 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.