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History · La Center

La Center’s post office opened in 1903, and 12% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1928 on and the census since 1910.

1903first post office
0on the National Register
12%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Brian Stansberry · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How La Center began

When was La Center founded?

1903

The La Center post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 426 in 19102020 census: 872123 years
Founding year: the first La Center post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about La Center’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 La Center are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start La Center’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how La Center’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 La Center came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of La Center.

Read it all →

The Kentucky Secretary of State is unclear upon the city's date of incorporation, but the LaCenter Woman's Club states it was originally named Merriville after the daughter of Maggie Davis, the land owner who sold the property for the new city to its developer, the La Center Land Company, in 1902. After the Postal Service rejected this name for the new post office, the postmaster requested "LaCentre" for the city's central location within Ballard County, and later settled for "LaCenter." One of the land developers, Stokely T. Payne, may have suggested the name, claiming the new city to be the "center of the universe," and possibly in the hopes that it would someday become the county seat.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

La Center, decade by decade

Today6 recent
LaCenter-water-tower-west-ky2018LaCenter-water-tower-west-kyLaCenter-water-tower-east-ky2018LaCenter-water-tower-east-kyLaCenter-Mimmies-Pizza-ky2018LaCenter-Mimmies-Pizza-kyLaCenter-City-Hall-ky2018LaCenter-City-Hall-kyLaCenter-Broadway-ky2018LaCenter-Broadway-kyLa Center2012La Center
On the map

La Center on the map, 1928 to 1975

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

La Center on the 1928 USGS mapLa Center on the 1932 USGS mapLa Center on the 1954 USGS mapLa Center on the 1975 USGS map1928La Center 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 La Center.

People over time

La Center, census by census

02004006008001,000192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,044

Between 426 and 1,044 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Questions about La Center’s history

What year was La Center founded?

The La Center post office opened in 1903, 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 →
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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 (6), 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.