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History · Bay Shore

Bay Shore’s post office opened in 1892

Most of Bay Shore was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1992. Below: maps from 1958 on.

1892first post office
0on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Bay Shore began

When was Bay Shore founded?

1892

The Bay Shore post office opened in 1892, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 687134 years
Founding year: the first Bay Shore post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bay Shore’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 Bay Shore are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
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Start Bay Shore’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Bay Shore’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 Bay Shore came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Bay Shore.

Read it all →

The land was originally owned by Eugene Sly and Nancy Stauffer. The community was known as both Bay Side to the north and Bay Shore, but the Bay Shore name was adopted when the Chicago and West Michigan Railway built a station there in 1892. The name Bay Shore came from its coastal location on Little Traverse Bay. A post office opened in Bay Shore on July 25, 1892 with Sly serving as the first postmaster. The community was surveyed and platted by John Swift in 1896. The post office operated until September 30, 1965.

While the community no longer has its own post office, it may use the Bay Shore 49711 post office box ZIP Code.

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

Bay Shore on the map, 1958 to 1983

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

Bay Shore on the 1958 USGS mapBay Shore on the 1983 USGS map1958Bayshore 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 Bay Shore.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Petoskey38 historic placesAResort Township1 historic placeB−

Questions about Bay Shore’s history

What year was Bay Shore founded?

The Bay Shore post office opened in 1892, 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 →
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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 and U.S. Geological Survey historical maps. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.