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History · Danville

Danville’s post office opened in 1882, and 26% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1889 on and the census since 1930.

1882first post office
0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Danville began

When was Danville founded?

1882

The Danville post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Coleville (1881), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 130 in 19302020 census: 29144 years
Founding year: the first Danville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Danville’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Danville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18894 editions of the USGS map, 1889 to 1985. Watch Danville change.Old housesHalf of Danville’s homes were built before 1952.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Danville’s collection

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

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

Danville on the map, 1889 to 1985

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

Danville on the 1889 USGS mapDanville on the 1893 USGS mapDanville on the 1971 USGS mapDanville on the 1985 USGS map1889Caldwell sheet · 1:125,000

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

The story

How Danville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Danville.

Read it all →

Danville was originally known as Odell. It was change to Coleville in 1881 and platted in 1880 by Mrs. J. E. Cole. When Mrs. Cole later sold the town site, the name was changed to Danville, after Danville, Ohio.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Danville, 1881 to 1889

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1881Post officeThe Coleville post office opens
  3. 1882Post officeThe Coleville post office closes
  4. 1882Post officeThe Danville post office opens
  5. 1889On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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People over time

Danville, census by census

010019401960198020002020Peak: 134

Between 29 and 134 people in every census since 1930.

10 censuses, 1930–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Danville’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Coleville, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Coleville
1881–1882
Danville
1882–today
18801950today

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

Questions about Danville’s history

What year was Danville founded?

The Danville post office opened in 1882, 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 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.