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History · Kingsbury

Kingsbury dates to 1835, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1958 on, and the census since 1880.

1835founded
0on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Kingsbury’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Kingsbury began

When was Kingsbury founded?

1835

Kingsbury dates its founding to 1835 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1880.

First census: 154 in 18802020 census: 190191 years
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1839.

What stands out about Kingsbury’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.Boom and bustPeaked at 329 in 1980; 190 people lived here in 2020.Deep rootsEstablished in 1835: 191 years of Kingsbury.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kingsbury’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kingsbury’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 viewKingsbury, Indiana S Main St: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Kingsbury, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 329

Peaked at 329 in 1980; 190 people lived here in 2020.

9 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Timeline

Kingsbury, 1835 to 1980

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1835
    FoundingKingsbury is established
  3. 1839Post officeThe Kingsbury post office opens
  4. 1860Born hereMary Roberts Coolidge is born here
  5. 20th century
  6. 1958On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 329
The story so far

Kingsbury, in brief

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

Kingsbury is a town in Washington Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, just northwest of the intersection of U.S. Route 35 and U.S. Route 6. The town was founded in 1835 and incorporated on March 3, 1941. During 1940 and 1941, the Kingsbury Ordnance Plant was built for use during World War II; the plant briefly reopened during the Korean War before closing permanently, and parts are now the Kingsbury Fish and Wildlife Area and the Kingsbury Industrial Park. Kingsford Heights was built as its housing. As of the 2020 census, Kingsbury had a population of 190. It is included in the Michigan City, Indiana-La Porte, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town has its own fire department, KVFD …

Kingsbury was established in 1835. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 242 to 190 (-21%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Kingsbury in 1904

Passages that mention Kingsbury, cut from the printed page as they were published.

that night the remarkable heavy frost fell, which proved so destructive to the crops. Mr. Reynolds completed the mill on July 3, and on the 4th he came to Kingsbury and commenced building the Kingsbury grist mill, which was finished the next spring. After this he built three houses on the road from…
A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana1904 · page 117Read the page →
Read the text

that night the remarkable heavy frost fell, which proved so destructive to the crops. Mr. Reynolds completed the mill on July 3, and on the 4th he came to Kingsbury and commenced building the Kingsbury grist mill, which was finished the next spring. After this he built three houses on the road from Kingsbury to LaPorte. On June 23. 1836. he was united in marriage with Miss

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Three miles south and a little to the east of Kingsbury is Tracy Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Here there are a Lutheran church, a Methodist Protestant church, one gen¬ eral store, a schoolhouse, and several dwellings.
A Twentieth Century History and Biographical Record of Laporte County Indiana1904 · page 109Read the page →
Read the text

Three miles south and a little to the east of Kingsbury is Tracy Station, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Here there are a Lutheran church, a Methodist Protestant church, one gen¬ eral store, a schoolhouse, and several dwellings.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Kingsbury, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Kingsbury, Indiana S Main StDate?Kingsbury, Indiana S Main St
Today9 recent
Kingbury 59742021Kingbury 5974Kingbury 59712021Kingbury 5971First Baptist 59732021First Baptist 5973First Baptist 59722021First Baptist 5972Schoof's Tourist Court, circa 19502020Schoof's Tourist Court, circa 195019670917 07 GTW201319670917 07 GTW19670917 06 GTW201319670917 06 GTW19670917 02 GTW Valparaiso, IL201319670917 02 GTW Valparaiso, ILUS-IN-Kingsbury2005US-IN-Kingsbury
On the map

Kingsbury on the map, 1958 to 1974

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

Kingsbury on the 1958 USGS mapKingsbury on the 1974 USGS map1958La Porte East 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 Kingsbury.

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.

Kingsbury, Indiana S Main St
Retake this viewKingsbury, Indiana S Main St

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

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Kingsbury’s history

What year was Kingsbury founded?

In 1835, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Kingsbury’s post office opened in 1839, and the census of 1880 counted 154 people here.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.