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History · Vienna

Vienna dates to 1706, and 48% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: old-book passages.

1706founded
0on the National Register
48%homes built before 1940
3famous people
Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Vienna began

When was Vienna founded?

1706

Vienna dates its founding to 1706 (Wikidata). Its post office opened in 1792.

2020 census: 270320 years
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1792.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.

★ 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.
Timeline

Vienna, 1706 to 1847

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

  1. 18th century
  2. 1706
    FoundingVienna is established
  3. 1767Born hereRichard Stanford is born here
  4. 1792Post officeThe Vienna post office opens
  5. 1796Born hereJohn Nevett Steele is born here
  6. 19th century
  7. 1847Born hereSamuel J. Keys is born here
The story

How Vienna came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Vienna.

Read it all →

Prior to European colonization, a Nanticoke town called "Chicacone" existed where Vienna is now located. The Nanticokes are an Algonquian people. Chicacone was the largest Nanticoke settlement at the time of John Smith's exploration of the Chesapeake Bay in 1608. By 1742, ongoing violations of Indian reservation rights by English colonizers caused the Nanticoke people to abandon Chicacone. In 1768–69, the Colony of Maryland dissolved the Nanticoke reservation. Many of the Nanticokes of Chicacone migrated north to Pennsylvania, New York, and Canada, while others stayed and assimilated into the white or black communities of lower Dorchester and Wicomico counties.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Vienna, 1902–1925

Passages that mention Vienna, cut from the printed page as they were published.

parish was so large that the people who lived a lomg distance from Cambridge could not regularly attend c,hurch service on Sunday. The first partial relief came to them in 1709, when a "Chapel ol Ease" was built at Vienna. As the population increased and expanded, the Assembly authorized the divisi…
History of Dorchester County, Maryland1902Read the page →
Read the text

parish was so large that the people who lived a lomg distance from Cambridge could not regularly attend c,hurch service on Sunday. The first partial relief came to them in 1709, when a "Chapel ol Ease" was built at Vienna. As the population increased and expanded, the Assembly authorized the division of great Choptank Parish and the outlining of another called "Saint Mary White Chapel Parish," in 1725, in which, no doubt divine services were held prior to the

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
parish was so large that the people who lived a long distance from Cambridge could not regularly attend church service on Sunday. The first partial relief came to them in 1709, when a “Chapel of Ease” was built at Vienna. As the population increased and expanded, the Assembly authorized the divisio…
Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925 · page 127Read the page →
Read the text

parish was so large that the people who lived a long distance from Cambridge could not regularly attend church service on Sunday. The first partial relief came to them in 1709, when a “Chapel of Ease” was built at Vienna. As the population increased and expanded, the Assembly authorized the division of Great Choptank Parish and the outlining of another called “Saint Mary White Chapel Parish,” in 1725, authorizing a chapel to be built in the parish. It was erected on the county road that

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1725 an Act was passed to invest the vestry of Great Choptank Parish with an estate in fee simple, viz: Two acres of land out of a parcel of 15 acres laid out for public use at the town of Vienna, whereon the chapel was built. Many years after the chapel had been abandoned for church worship, it…
Revised history of Dorchester County, Maryland1925 · page 90Read the page →
Read the text

In 1725 an Act was passed to invest the vestry of Great Choptank Parish with an estate in fee simple, viz: Two acres of land out of a parcel of 15 acres laid out for public use at the town of Vienna, whereon the chapel was built. Many years after the chapel had been abandoned for church worship, its old brick walls were the chief memorials of that cemetery then rich with the ashes of the dead. Now lettered tablets of stone erected there in later years make it as sacred

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
In 1725 an Act was passed to invest the vestry of Great Choptank Parish with an estate in fee simple, viz : Two acres of land out of a parcel of 15 acres laid out for public use at tnc town of Vienna, whereon the chapel was buih. Many years after the chapel had been abandoned for church worship, it…
History of Dorchester County, Maryland1902Read the page →
Read the text

In 1725 an Act was passed to invest the vestry of Great Choptank Parish with an estate in fee simple, viz : Two acres of land out of a parcel of 15 acres laid out for public use at tnc town of Vienna, whereon the chapel was buih. Many years after the chapel had been abandoned for church worship, its old brick walls were the chief memorials of that cemetery then rich with the ashes of the dead. Now lettered tablets of stone erected there in later years make it as sacred

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Vienna, decade by decade

Famous people

3 famous people were born in Vienna

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →

Questions about Vienna’s history

What year was Vienna founded?

In 1706, according to Wikidata. Vienna’s post office opened in 1792.

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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.