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History · Goshen

Goshen’s post office opened in 1816, and 20% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Mountain Rest and the Goshen Town Hall. Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1937 on.

1816first post office
2on the National Register
20%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Goshen began

When was Goshen founded?

1816

The Goshen post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 960210 years
Founding year: the first Goshen post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Goshen’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 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1816: 210 years of Goshen.Old housesHalf of Goshen’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Goshen’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Goshen’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 viewLand Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA …: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Goshen, 1816 to 1937

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1816Post officeThe Goshen post office opens
  3. 1898Post officeThe Lithia post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1911BuiltGoshen Town Hall is built
  6. 1937In the archiveLand Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA - f2dd5d391329a1f8fa22cea24849c2e5
The story

How Goshen came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Goshen.

Read it all →

Goshen was first settled in 1761. Until May 14, 1781, it was a part of Chesterfield, Massachusetts. Home to natural beryl deposits, colorless beryl was first discovered in Goshen, leading it to be called goshenite by the gem industry.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Goshen, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s3 items
Land Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA - f2dd5d391329a1f8fa22cea24849c2e51937Land Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA - f2dd5d391329…Roads and Buildings Town of Goshen - DPLA - 16a1b8061edb8a894108973526ccfe3f1937Roads and Buildings Town of Goshen - DPLA - 16a1b8061…Soil Classification Town of Goshen - DPLA - 2d82169b646b84c0db79e59cd60dd3101937Soil Classification Town of Goshen - DPLA - 2d82169b6…
1940s–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
Today2 recent
Seal of2002Seal ofFlag of2002Flag of
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.

Land Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA - f2dd5d391329a1f8fa22cea24849c2e5
Retake this viewLand Utilization Town of Goshen - DPLA - f2dd5d391329a1f8fa22cea24849c2e5, 1937

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Goshen

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
8
each building in a district counts
first listed
1983
Mountain Rest
Mountain RestGoshen Town Hall, built 1911
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Victorian1
Mountain RestVictorian
Goshen Town HallBuilt 1911

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

Places that used to be

Old corners and burying grounds

Goshen’s post office has been open since 1816.

Goshen
1816–today
Lithia
1898–today
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Camp HoweLithia
1cemetery inside Goshen
Goshen

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Conway2 historic placesA+Chesterfield5 historic placesA+Ashfield1 historic placeA+Williamsburg2 historic placesA+Cummington1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Goshen’s history

What year was Goshen founded?

The Goshen post office opened in 1816, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Goshen?

Two places: the Mountain Rest (listed 1983) and the Goshen Town Hall (2018).

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 (5), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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.