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History · Utica

Utica’s post office opened in 1871

Below: maps from 1906 on.

1871first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
Quick answers

How Utica began

When was Utica founded?

1871

The Utica post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 298155 years
Founding year: the first Utica post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Utica’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Utica’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
On the map

Utica on the map, 1906 to 1983

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

Utica on the 1906 USGS mapUtica on the 1953 USGS mapUtica on the 1983 USGS map1906Sutherland 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 Utica.

The story

How Utica came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Utica.

Read it all →

Utica was probably founded in the early 1800s and named after the City of Utica, New York. Mill Street, which is the first side road on KY 140, was named after the flour mill that was located behind JR's Market. The first property on Mill Street was a passenger train station in the late 1800s to early 1900s that ferried people to the river town of Owensboro across the border from Indiana. This cemetery consists of people from the local community as early as the early 1900s but most are from the 1930s and upward. It is still used to this day.

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.

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Famous people

Famous people close to Utica

Nobody well known was born in Utica itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Questions about Utica’s history

What year was Utica founded?

The Utica post office opened in 1871, 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 Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.