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BHistory
History · Winona Lake

Winona Lake’s post office opened in 1898, and 10% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 61% of U.S. towns · #325 of 593 in Indiana. What drives it

1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 60 buildings. Below: 13 old photos and papers, maps from 1957 on, and the census since 1920.

1898first post office
1on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
13old photos & papers
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Winona Lake’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Winona Lake began

When was Winona Lake founded?

1898

The Winona Lake post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Eagle Lake (1889), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 300 in 19202020 census: 5,053128 years

How historic is Winona Lake?

B

More historic than 61% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Winona Lake post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Winona Lake’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Winona Lake is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #325 of 593 in Indiana. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Winona Lake’s overall grade.
Founding era1898, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194010.3% of homes (±6.2) · typical IN town 14.4% · U.S. 8.4%B−National Register1 listing, 60 historic buildings, 118 per 10,000 residents · typical IN town 7.9 · U.S. 2.4A−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 61%
NewerOlder
Indiana towns of 2,500+ (593)Ahead of 45%

Indiana towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Indiana town has 7.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Winona Lake’s 118 sits above most of its state (83% of Indiana towns have fewer) while its 60 historic buildings outnumber those of 86% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Winona Lake’s past

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

A historic districtThe Winona Lake Historic District takes in 60 historic buildings.A town in old photos13 old photos, postcards and papers, 1910–1930.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

1 listing protects 60 historic buildings

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
60
each building in a district counts
first listed
1993
Winona Lake Historic District
Winona Lake Historic District
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Second Empire1
Queen Anne1
Classical Revival1
Chautauqua Cottage1
Swiss Chalet1
Greek Temple1
Winona Lake Historic DistrictSecond Empire

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

By decade

Winona Lake, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s10 items
Sunset1910SunsetSunset1910SunsetGlenn H. Curtiss and his famous passenger, Wm. A. Sunday, at Winona Lake, Ind1911Glenn H. Curtiss and his famous passenger, Wm. A. Sun…Venetian Night1912Venetian NightVenetian Night1912Venetian NightVenetian Night1912Venetian NightWinona Bible Conference, 1915, Winona Lake, Ind1915Winona Bible Conference, 1915, Winona Lake, IndWinona Bible Conference, 19151915Winona Bible Conference, 1915Mount Hood, "Billy" Sunday's home1915Mount Hood, "Billy" Sunday's homeBilly Sunday and family at home, Mount Hood1915Billy Sunday and family at home, Mount Hood
1920s–1930s3 items
Portrait of photographer Will H. Towles at Winona Lake, Indiana in 1927c. 1927Portrait of photographer Will H. Towles at Winona Lak…Portrait of photographer Will H. Towles at Winona Lake, Indiana. AD071c. 1927Portrait of photographer Will H. Towles at Winona Lak…Oh how he hates to get up in the morning1930Oh how he hates to get up in the morning
1940s–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
Today5 recent
Winona Lake, IN, USA2009Winona Lake, IN, USAWinona Lake, IN, USA - panoramio (1)2009Winona Lake, IN, USA - panoramio (1)Disciple at the Pro Life Music Fest2007Disciple at the Pro Life Music FestSeventh Day Slumber in performance at the Pro-Life Music Festival 20062006Seventh Day Slumber in performance at the Pro-Life Mu…US-IN-Winona Lake2005US-IN-Winona Lake
The story

How Winona Lake came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Winona Lake.

Read it all →

Winona Lake is best known for the lake after which it is named and built on, although the lake was originally known as Eagle Lake. Located along the eastern shore of the lake, the Winona Lake Historic District includes various historic homes and other buildings that attest to the area's history as a Chautauqua and Bible conference hotspot. It is also the home of Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary, and was the home of famed preacher and professional baseball player Billy Sunday, who died in 1935. The Billy Sunday Home has been preserved as a museum. Christian musician and preacher Homer Rodeheaver also made Winona Lake his home from 1912 until his death in 1955. The Winona School of Professional Photography was started there in 1912 (as the Indiana School of Photography) and was operated by the Professional Photographers of America until its move to Chicago (Mount Prospect) in…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Winona Lake in 1919

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

Tonti. 3; death of, 5 Topography, 108 Town and city property, value of, 127 Town of Winona Lake, 317 Township libraries, 156 Township and early, 89 Trains, first. 176
A Standard History of Kosciusko County Indiana1919 · page 706Read the page →
Read the text

Tonti. 3; death of, 5 Topography, 108 Town and city property, value of, 127 Town of Winona Lake, 317 Township libraries, 156 Township and early, 89 Trains, first. 176

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Tonti, 3: death of, 5 Topography, 108 Town and city property, value of. 137 Town of Winona Lake. 317 Township libraries, 156 Township surveys and surveyors.
A standard history of Kosciusko County, Indiana1919 · page 706Read the page →
Read the text

Tonti, 3: death of, 5 Topography, 108 Town and city property, value of. 137 Town of Winona Lake. 317 Township libraries, 156 Township surveys and surveyors.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Winona Lake, Restful Scenes on (illus- (illustra - trations), 307 Winona Lake (town). value of real estate. 127: total wealth, 127; schools and colleges, 314; town organized 317 Winona Lake Training Camp. opened.
A Standard History of Kosciusko County Indiana1919Read the page →
Read the text

Winona Lake, Restful Scenes on (illus- (illustra - trations), 307 Winona Lake (town). value of real estate. 127: total wealth, 127; schools and colleges, 314; town organized 317 Winona Lake Training Camp. opened.

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.

Timeline

Winona Lake, 1889 to 1992

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Eagle Lake post office opens
  3. 1898Post officeThe Eagle Lake post office closes
  4. 1898Post officeThe Winona Lake post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1910In the archiveSunset
  7. 1920Born hereJ. Robert Nelson is born here
  8. 1927In the archivePortrait of photographer Will H. Towles at Winona Lake, Indiana in 1927
  9. 1930In the archiveOh how he hates to get up in the morning
  10. 1957On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  11. 1992Born hereNic Moore is born here
On the map

Winona Lake on the map, 1957 to 1981

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

Winona Lake on the 1957 USGS mapWinona Lake on the 1981 USGS map1957Warsaw 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 Winona Lake.

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.

Sunset
Retake this viewSunset, 1910

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Winona Lake, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,5001920194019601980200020205,053

Grew from 300 people in 1920 to 5,053 in 2020, more than tenfold.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Winona Lake

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Nic MooreAmerican basketball player · b. 1992
J
J. Robert NelsonAmerican theologian · b. 1920
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Winona Lake’s post office has been open since 1898. Another post office, Eagle Lake, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Eagle Lake
1889–1898
Winona Lake
1898–today
18801950today

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

Help out

Finish Winona Lake’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewSunset: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Warsaw6 historic placesA

Questions about Winona Lake’s history

What year was Winona Lake founded?

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

How does Winona Lake rank for history?

Winona Lake is more historic than 61% of U.S. towns, #325 of 593 in Indiana. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

What is on the National Register in Winona Lake?

One place: the Winona Lake Historic District (listed 1993).

How old are the homes in Winona Lake?

10% of Winona Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.2 points), against a typical 14% for an Indiana town; the median home was built in 1979.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (8), the Library of Congress (10), the National Register of Historic Places (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 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.