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History · Melvern

Melvern’s post office opened in 1870, and 41% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Pratt Truss Bridge.

1870first post office
1on the National Register
41%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Melvern began, and where its name came from

When was Melvern founded?

1870

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

2020 census: 356156 years

How did Melvern get its name?

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

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

What stands out about Melvern’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 are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Melvern’s homes were built before 1962.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Melvern’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Melvern’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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The story

How Melvern came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Melvern.

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.

By decade

Melvern, decade by decade

Today1 recent
KSMap-doton-Melvern2005KSMap-doton-Melvern
On the National Register

1 historic place in Melvern

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
first listed
2003
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Pratt Truss Brid…
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Pratt Truss Bridge
Structures
Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Pratt Truss BridgeStructure

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

Questions about Melvern’s history

What year was Melvern founded?

The Melvern 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 Melvern?

One place: the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Pratt Truss Bridge (listed 2003).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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, 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.