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History · Simsboro

Simsboro’s post office opened in 1867, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Its Register listing is the Walnut Creek Baptist Church. Most of Simsboro was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1950 on, and the census since 1890.

1867first post office
1on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Simsboro began

When was Simsboro founded?

1867

The Simsboro post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 248 in 18902020 census: 803159 years
Founding year: the first Simsboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Simsboro’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Simsboro’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewClaiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Si…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story so far

Simsboro, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Simsboro yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Simsboro is a village in western Lincoln Parish, Louisiana, United States. As of the 2020 census, Simsboro had a population of 803. It is part of the Ruston Micropolitan Statistical Area. Two 20th-century lawmakers who were natives of Simsboro are interred at Simsboro Cemetery: State Representatives L.D. "Buddy" Napper, who served from 1952 to 1964, and practiced law for a half-century in Ruston, and Ragan Madden, who left the House in 1949 to become the five-term district attorney of the 3rd Judicial District. A 19th Century lawmaker who lived in Simsboro was Representative George M. Lomax, who in 1894 introduced the enabling legislation, Act 68, to establish the future Louisiana Tech Univ…

Its first post office opened in 1867. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 841 to 803 (-5%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Simsboro, 1867 to 1982

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867Post officeThe Simsboro post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1982In the archiveClaiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Simsboro
By decade

Simsboro, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1980s1 item
Claiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Simsboro1982Claiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Simsboro
1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today8 recent
Simsboro, LA, welcome sign IMG 26752011Simsboro, LA, welcome sign IMG 2675Revised Simsboro, LA, Town Hall IMG 26782011Revised Simsboro, LA, Town Hall IMG 2678Weyerhaeuser in Simsboro, LA IMG 36392010Weyerhaeuser in Simsboro, LA IMG 3639Simsboro, LA, Village Hall IMG 36422010Simsboro, LA, Village Hall IMG 3642Simsboro, LA, High School IMG 36412010Simsboro, LA, High School IMG 3641Ragan Madden Park in Simsboro, LA IMG 36442010Ragan Madden Park in Simsboro, LA IMG 3644J.R.'s Place in Simsboro, LA IMG 36432010J.R.'s Place in Simsboro, LA IMG 3643LAMap-doton-Simsboro2004LAMap-doton-Simsboro
On the map

Simsboro on the map, 1950 to 1994

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

Simsboro on the 1950 USGS mapSimsboro on the 1969 USGS mapSimsboro on the 1986 USGS mapSimsboro on the 1994 USGS map1950Arcadia 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 Simsboro.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Claiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Simsboro
Retake this viewClaiborne Hotel Courts sign, west of Simsboro, 1982

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Simsboro’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Simsboro

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
1984
Walnut Creek Baptist Church
Buildings
All 1 listings
Walnut Creek Baptist ChurchBuilding · listed 1984

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

People over time

Simsboro, census by census

02004006008001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 841

Between 248 and 841 people in every census since 1890.

10 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

Questions about Simsboro’s history

What year was Simsboro founded?

The Simsboro post office opened in 1867, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Simsboro?

One place: the Walnut Creek Baptist Church (listed 1984).

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 (9), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.