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History · Vienna

Vienna’s post office opened in 1850

Most of Vienna was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981. Below: maps from 1950 on and the census since 1880.

1850first post office
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Vienna began

When was Vienna founded?

1850

The Vienna post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 358 in 18802020 census: 483176 years
Founding year: the first Vienna post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Vienna’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 Vienna are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1970, then grew 8-fold.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Vienna’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Vienna, census by census

010020030040050018801900192019401960198020002020358 in 1880Low: 59

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1880 and 1970, then grew 8-fold.

7 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Vienna came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Vienna.

Read it all →

The Colvins operated a store or relay station of some kind. Their house was near the trail that led from Monroe to Shreveport. Jephthah (son of Daniel) opened the first post office in the region in 1838, originally known as Colvin's Post Office. The name was changed to Vienna in 1850.

Vienna was an overnight stop the stagecoaches on the Monroe-Shreveport Stagecoach Road (later called the Old Wire Road).

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Vienna, 1850 to 1980

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850Post officeThe Vienna post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1950Born hereJ. R. Richard is born here
  5. 1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1964Post officeThe Vienna post office closes
  7. 1980CensusPopulation peaks at 519
By decade

Vienna, decade by decade

Today1 recent
LAMap-doton-Vienna2004LAMap-doton-Vienna
On the map

Vienna on the map, 1950 to 1994

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

Vienna on the 1950 USGS mapVienna on the 1968 USGS mapVienna on the 1985 USGS mapVienna on the 1994 USGS map1950Ruston 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 Vienna.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Vienna had its own post office from 1850 to 1964.

Vienna
1850–1964
18501940today
Gone or out of use
Ruston Gas Fieldoilfield

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Vienna’s history

What year was Vienna founded?

The Vienna post office opened in 1850, 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 Wikimedia Commons (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.