Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Maize

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
C−History
History · Maize

Maize’s post office opened in 1886

More historic than 16% of U.S. towns · #134 of 151 in Kansas. What drives it

Most of Maize was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2011. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1941 on, and the census since 1920.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
2%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Maize’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Maize began

When was Maize founded?

1886

The Maize post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Hatfield (1884), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 189 in 19202020 census: 5,735140 years

How historic is Maize?

C−

More historic than 16% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives Maize’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Maize is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #134 of 151 in Kansas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Maize’s overall grade.
Founding era1886, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19402.4% of homes (±3.9) · typical KS town 10.3% · U.S. 8.4%C−National RegisterNo listings counted · typical KS town 5.1 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 16%
NewerOlder
Kansas towns of 2,500+ (151)Ahead of 11%

Kansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Kansas town has 5.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Maize’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of Kansas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.9 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 Maize’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.Lost villages1 post office opened and closed inside today’s Maize, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Maize’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewMaize KS - 1912: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Maize’s post office has been open since 1886. Another post office, Hatfield, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Hatfield
1884–1886
Maize
1886–today
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BerwetOak Court Mobile Home CourtRolling Meadows Mobile Home Park
1cemetery inside Maize
Maize

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

The story

How Maize came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Maize.

Read it all →

The Maize Town Company, led by N. F. Neiderlander, founded Maize in 1886 at the first stop outside of Wichita on the Wichita and Colorado Railway. The post office opened that same year as did the town's first church, having relocated from nearby. Maize's first school opened in 1887; its first newspaper opened in 1895. Maize State Bank, the town's first financial institution, opened in 1901, and, by 1908, a business community had emerged. In 1915, the Maize Town Company dissolved, and Maize was incorporated as a city.

Several natural disasters struck Maize in the 1930s and 1940s, including the Dust Bowl in 1934–35, a plague of grasshoppers in 1936, and a flood in 1944.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Maize, 1884 to 1992

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1884Post officeThe Hatfield post office opens
  3. 1886Post officeThe Hatfield post office closes
  4. 1886Post officeThe Maize post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1912In the archiveMaize KS - 1912
  7. 1941On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1992Born hereMiles Ukaoma is born here
By decade

Maize, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s1 item
Maize KS - 19121912Maize KS - 1912
1920s–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
Water tower in2026Water tower inSedgwick County 911 console (2014)2014Sedgwick County 911 console (2014)Black and white Maize KS police badge2013Black and white Maize KS police badgeDetailed map of2010Detailed map ofMapKSMap-doton-Maize2005KSMap-doton-Maize
On the map

Maize on the map, 1941 to 1982

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

Maize on the 1941 USGS mapMaize on the 1956 USGS mapMaize on the 1961 USGS mapMaize on the 1970 USGS mapMaize on the 1982 USGS map1941Maize sheet · 1:31,680

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

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.

Maize KS - 1912
Retake this viewMaize KS - 1912, 1912

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Maize, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,5006,0001920194019601980200020205,735

Grew from 189 people in 1920 to 5,735 in 2020, more than tenfold.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Park TownshipIts storyDWichita140 historic placesBUnion Township1 historic placeC+

Questions about Maize’s history

What year was Maize founded?

The Maize post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Maize rank for history?

Maize is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #134 of 151 in Kansas. 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.

How old are the homes in Maize?

2% of Maize’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.9 points), against a typical 10% for a Kansas town; the median home was built in 2011.

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 (6), 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.