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History · Avoca

Avoca’s post office opened in 1878, and 49% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Avoca Public School. Below: maps from 1970 on and the census since 1880.

1878first post office
1on the National Register
49%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Avoca began

When was Avoca founded?

1878

The Avoca post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lime Lake (1872), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 135 in 18802020 census: 111148 years
Founding year: the first Avoca post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Avoca’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 Avoca are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 338 in 1900; 111 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Avoca’s homes were built before 1941.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Avoca’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avoca’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
People over time

Avoca, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 338

Peaked at 338 in 1900; 111 people lived here in 2020.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story

How Avoca came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Avoca.

Read it all →

In 1879, Avoca was named for the village of Avoca in County Wicklow, Ireland.

A Catholic school for Native American girls ran circa 1882-1896 and later reopened in 1905 as a boys military school until it was destroyed by fire on February 12, 1910. The town's water supply was frozen, which meant that the building was unable to be saved.

St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church suffered a fire in 1889 but was rebuilt though it is now closed and the structure torn down. Three former Lutheran churches long ago merged into Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELCA), which closed in August, 2018. The nondenominational Word of Faith Fellowship, established 1983, is the only church currently in town.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Avoca, 1872 to 1970

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1872Post officeThe Lime Lake post office opens
  3. 1878Post officeThe Lime Lake post office closes
  4. 1878Post officeThe Avoca post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1900CensusPopulation peaks at 338
  7. 1970On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Avoca, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Avoca Public School2014Avoca Public SchoolMNMap-doton-Avoca2005MNMap-doton-Avoca
On the map

Avoca on the map, 1970 to 1985

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

Avoca on the 1970 USGS mapAvoca on the 1985 USGS map1970Avoca 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 Avoca.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Avoca

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
1979
Avoca Public School
Avoca Public School
Buildings
Avoca Public SchoolBuilding

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Avoca’s post office has been open since 1878. Another post office, Lime Lake, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Lime Lake
1872–1878
Avoca
1878–today
18701950today
Gone or out of use
Avocalocale
1cemetery inside Avoca
Faith

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

Questions about Avoca’s history

What year was Avoca founded?

The Avoca post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Avoca?

One place: the Avoca Public School (listed 1979).

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