Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Adams

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Adams

Adams’ post office opened in 1861, and 32% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the First National Bank of Adams. Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1880.

1861first post office
1on the National Register
32%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Adams began

When was Adams founded?

1861

The Adams post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 96 in 18802020 census: 683165 years
Founding year: the first Adams post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Adams’ 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 Adams are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Adams’ homes were built before 1959.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Adams’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Adams’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
The story

How Adams came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Adams.

Read it all →

The village of Adams was platted on January 30, 1868, by Selah Chamberlain. A two-room public school was built in 1869 and was later expanded to four rooms. The village was officially incorporated on March 2, 1887. A water works system was installed in the summer of 1897. A volunteer fire department was established as Adams Hose Co. No. 1 in 1898. A sewage system was installed in 1902. A Catholic school was built in 1903 and roughly half of the public school students started attending there, greatly relieving overcrowding. The sewage system was updated in 1958. The town is in the Southland school district (which includes Southland High School), and is home to the varsity fields for the teams.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Adams, 1861 to 1965

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1861Post officeThe Adams post office opens
  3. 1881Born hereHubert H. Peavey is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1965On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Adams, decade by decade

Today1 recent
Adams, Minnesota2023Adams, Minnesota
On the map

Adams on the map, 1965 to 1985

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

Adams on the 1965 USGS mapAdams on the 1985 USGS map1965Adams sheet · 1:24,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Adams.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Adams

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1986
First National Bank of Adams
First National Bank of Adams
Buildings
First National Bank of AdamsBuilding

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

People over time

Adams, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 806

Between 96 and 806 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Adams’s post office has been open since 1861.

Gone or out of use
Adamslocale
1cemetery inside Adams
Sacred Heart

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

Questions about Adams’ history

What year was Adams founded?

The Adams post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Adams?

One place: the First National Bank of Adams (listed 1986).

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