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–Not graded
History · Bruno

Bruno’s post office opened in 1896, and 48% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1962 on and the census since 1910.

1896first post office
0on the National Register
48%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Lorie Shaull · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Bruno began

When was Bruno founded?

1896

The Bruno post office opened in 1896, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 229 in 19102020 census: 85130 years
Founding year: the first Bruno post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Bruno’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 Bruno are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Bruno’s homes were built before 1941.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Bruno’s collection

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

From Wikipedia’s history of Bruno.

Read it all →

Named after Bruno Township, after an early hotel owner there, the city of Bruno was incorporated on 29 August 1903. Before, the Eastern Railway Company of Minnesota operated a station in 1887 known as Mansfield Station, a village owned and platted by Fitzhugh Burns. Post office service began in 1896. Because many of the early settlers were from Czechoslovakia, the city may also have been named for Brno, a city in the Czech Republic.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Bruno, 1896 to 1962

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896Post officeThe Bruno post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1927Born hereRalph Plaisted is born here
  5. 1962On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Bruno on the map, 1962 to 1981

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

Bruno on the 1962 USGS mapBruno on the 1981 USGS map1962Bruno 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 Bruno.

People over time

Bruno, census by census

0100200192019401960198020002020Peak: 234

Between 85 and 234 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Bruno TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Bruno’s history

What year was Bruno founded?

The Bruno post office opened in 1896, 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, 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.