Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Melvern Township

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
–Not graded
History · Melvern Township

Melvern Township’s post office opened in 1870, and 29% of its homes were built before 1940

1 place in town is on the National Register. Below: maps from 1947 on and the census since 1880.

1870first post office
1on the National Register
29%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Melvern Township began, and where its name came from

When was Melvern Township founded?

1870

The Melvern Township post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Kedron (1871), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 103 in 18802020 census: 729156 years

How did Melvern Township get its name?

Melvern Township was named after the Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire, England.

Founding year: the first Melvern Township post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓

What stands out about Melvern Township’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 Melvern Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 505 in 1910; 356 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Melvern Township’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Melvern Township’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
People over time

Melvern Township, census by census

010020030040050018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 505

Peaked at 505 in 1910; 356 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Melvern Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Melvern Township.

Read it all →

Melvern was laid out in 1870. It was named after the Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire, England.

The first post office in Melvern was established in June 1870.

In 2004, the city was in the headlines after it was revealed that Lisa Montgomery brought a baby back to her house in this city, after she had murdered the baby's mother and crudely removed the baby from the womb.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Melvern Township, 1871 to 1947

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1871Post officeThe Kedron post office opens
  3. 1881Post officeThe Kedron post office closes
  4. 20th century
  5. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 505
  6. 1947On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Melvern Township, decade by decade

Today1 recent
KSMap-doton-Melvern2005KSMap-doton-Melvern
On the map

Melvern Township on the map, 1947 to 1961

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

Melvern Township on the 1947 USGS mapMelvern Township on the 1950 USGS mapMelvern Township on the 1961 USGS map1947Lawrence 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 Melvern Township.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Melvern Township

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Kedron, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
KedronlocaleTevis Airportairport
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Melvern Township
MelvernSutton

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Olivet TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townLincoln TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townAgency TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townRock Creek TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townKey West TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townValley Brook Township2 historic placesA

Questions about Melvern Township’s history

What year was Melvern Township founded?

The Melvern Township post office opened in 1870, 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), Wikidata (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.