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History · Prairie View

Prairie View’s post office opened in 1879, and 33% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1893 on and the census since 1910.

1879first post office
0on the National Register
33%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Prairie View began

When was Prairie View founded?

1879

The Prairie View post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 191 in 19102020 census: 106147 years
Founding year: the first Prairie View post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Prairie View’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 Prairie View are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18933 editions of the USGS map, 1893 to 1985. Watch Prairie View change.Old housesHalf of Prairie View’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Prairie View’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Prairie View’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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On the map

Prairie View on the map, 1893 to 1985

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

Prairie View on the 1893 USGS mapPrairie View on the 1978 USGS mapPrairie View on the 1985 USGS map1893Norton sheet · 1:125,000

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

The story

How Prairie View came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Prairie View.

Read it all →

The first post office in Prairie View (also spelled historically Prairieview) was established in July 1879.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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People over time

Prairie View, census by census

0100200192019401960198020002020Peak: 205

Between 106 and 205 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Beaver TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townPrairie View TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Prairie View’s history

What year was Prairie View founded?

The Prairie View post office opened in 1879, 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 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.