Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Brookston

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 · Brookston

Brookston’s post office opened in 1899, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1953 on, and the census since 1910.

1899first post office
0on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Brookston’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Brookston began

When was Brookston founded?

1899

The Brookston post office opened in 1899, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 160 in 19102020 census: 118127 years
Founding year: the first Brookston post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Brookston’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Brookston’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewUntitled photo: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Brookston came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Brookston.

Read it all →

Brookston is a city in sections 27 and 34 of Culver Township; it was platted about 1905 and incorporated as a village on April 13, 1907; the post office began in 1899. The city was destroyed by a forest fire in 1918 and rebuilt. It was formerly known as Stoney Brook Junction, the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railroad station located in section 28.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Brookston, 1899 to 1953

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1899Post officeThe Brookston post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910In the archiveUntitled photo
  5. 1920In the archiveElevator and Great Northern Depot, Brookston, Minnesota, 1920s
  6. 1953On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Brookston, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s–1920s2 items
Untitled photo1910Untitled photoElevator and Great Northern Depot, Brookston, Minnesota, 1920sc. 1920Elevator and Great Northern Depot, Brookston, Minneso…
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Today1 recent
Brookston City Hall2023Brookston City Hall
On the map

Brookston on the map in 1953

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Brookston.

Brookston on the 1953 USGS map1953Brookston 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 Brookston.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Untitled photo
Retake this viewUntitled photo, 1910

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Brookston’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Brookston, census by census

0100200192019401960198020002020Peak: 180

Between 98 and 180 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Questions about Brookston’s history

What year was Brookston founded?

The Brookston post office opened in 1899, 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 →
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 (3), 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.