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History · Glen Elder

Glen Elder’s post office opened in 1870, and 32% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the E. W. Norris Service Station. Below: maps from 1955 on and the census since 1880.

1870first post office
1on the National Register
32%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Glen Elder began

When was Glen Elder founded?

1870

The Glen Elder post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 165 in 18802020 census: 362156 years
Founding year: the first Glen Elder post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Glen Elder’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 Glen Elder are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 617 in 1930; 362 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Glen Elder’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Glen Elder’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Glen Elder’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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People over time

Glen Elder, census by census

010020030040050060018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 617

Peaked at 617 in 1930; 362 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Glen Elder came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Glen Elder.

Read it all →

Glen Elder was originally known as West Hampton, and under the latter name was laid out and platted in 1871 by promoters who built a large gristmill at the site. The town later adopted the name Glen Elder when the post office of that name was moved there from its former location a half mile north. The present name is after a grove of box elder trees. Glen Elder incorporated in 1879.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Glen Elder, 1870 to 1955

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1870Post officeThe Glen Elder post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1926BuiltE. W. Norris Service Station is built
  5. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 617
  6. 1955On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Glen Elder, decade by decade

Today1 recent
KSMap-doton-Glen Elder2004KSMap-doton-Glen Elder
On the map

Glen Elder on the map, 1955 to 1979

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

Glen Elder on the 1955 USGS mapGlen Elder on the 1979 USGS map1955Beloit sheet · 1:250,000

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

On the National Register

1 historic place in Glen Elder

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1976
E. W. Norris Service Station
E. W. Norris Service Station, built 1926
Buildings
E. W. Norris Service StationBuilt 1926

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

Questions about Glen Elder’s history

What year was Glen Elder founded?

The Glen Elder post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Glen Elder?

One place: the E. W. Norris Service Station (listed 1976).

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 (1), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.