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History · Herndon

Herndon’s post office opened in 1880, and 66% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1951 on and the census since 1910.

1880first post office
0on the National Register
66%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Herndon began

When was Herndon founded?

1880

The Herndon post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Pesth (1879), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 273 in 19102020 census: 119146 years
Founding year: the first Herndon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Herndon’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 Herndon are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Herndon’s homes were built before 1938.Boom and bustPeaked at 443 in 1940; 119 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Herndon’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Herndon came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Herndon.

Read it all →

Herndon was originally called Pesth (named after Pest, Hungary, which later merged to become Budapest) and under the latter name was laid out in 1878. It was renamed Herndon in 1879, in honor of William H. Herndon, law partner of Abraham Lincoln. Herndon was incorporated as a city in 1906.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

People over time

Herndon, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020Peak: 443

Peaked at 443 in 1940; 119 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Timeline

Herndon, 1879 to 1951

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1879Post officeThe Pesth post office opens
  3. 1880Post officeThe Pesth post office closes
  4. 1880Post officeThe Herndon post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1910Born hereRudy Wendelin is born here
  7. 1940CensusPopulation peaks at 443
  8. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Herndon, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Detailed map of2010Detailed map ofMap
On the map

Herndon on the map, 1951 to 1985

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

Herndon on the 1951 USGS mapHerndon on the 1978 USGS mapHerndon on the 1985 USGS map1951Herndon sheet · 1:62,500

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Herndon’s post office has been open since 1880. Another post office, Pesth, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Pesth
1879–1880
Herndon
1880–today
18701950today

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

Questions about Herndon’s history

What year was Herndon founded?

The Herndon post office opened in 1880, 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 (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) 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.