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History · Baroda

Baroda’s post office opened in 1891, and 22% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1927 on and the census since 1910.

1891first post office

0on the National Register

22%homes built before 1940

1famous people

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Quick answers

How Baroda began

When was Baroda founded?

1891

The Baroda post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1907.

First census: 248 in 19102020 census: 875135 years

Founding year: the first Baroda post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1907.The full story ↓

What stands out about Baroda’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 Baroda are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.

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

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

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The story

How Baroda came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Baroda.

Read it all →

The first European American settlers started to arrive in the 1830s and began clearing the land, draining the swamps, and building homes and farms. Michael Houser is considered the founder of Baroda, bargaining with the Indiana and Lake Michigan Railway Company to establish a station on his land. Houser platted the village ca. 1890. Houser named the community after Baroda in Gujarat, India. The village incorporated in 1907. The Baroda Post Office opened on January 1, 1891.

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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On the map

Baroda on the map, 1927 to 1970

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

1927Niles 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 Baroda.

People over time

Baroda, census by census

Grew from 248 people in 1910 to 875 in 2020, 3 times over.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Questions about Baroda’s history

What year was Baroda founded?

The Baroda post office opened in 1891, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1907.

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, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps and U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.

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