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History · Melrose Township

13% of Melrose Township’s homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1965 on and the census since 1890.

0on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about Melrose Township’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 Melrose Township are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1910 and 1930, then more than doubled.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Melrose Township’s collection

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

Melrose Township, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,00019001920194019601980200020202,591 in 1910Low: 1,801

Lost a third of its people between 1910 and 1930, then more than doubled.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

The story so far

Melrose Township, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Melrose Township yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Melrose is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,602 at the 2020 census. It is part of the St. Cloud metropolitan area.

Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 759 to 729 (-4%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Melrose Township in 1915

Passages that mention Melrose Township, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Melrose Township. — The first school in the township of Melrose was taught in what is now District Number 41, more generally known as the Stewart school, situated about three miles west of the city of Melrose. This district was organized in 1861, the school officers being Messrs.
History of Stearns County, Minnesota1915 · page 1380Read the page →
Read the text

Melrose Township. — The first school in the township of Melrose was taught in what is now District Number 41, more generally known as the Stewart school, situated about three miles west of the city of Melrose. This district was organized in 1861, the school officers being Messrs.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

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

Melrose Township on the map, 1965 to 1979

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

Melrose Township on the 1965 USGS mapMelrose Township on the 1979 USGS map1965Melrose 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 Melrose Township.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Gone or out of use
Melrose Riverside Airfieldairport

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Melrose1 historic placeBSauk Centre TownshipIts storyC−Millwood TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townBirchdale TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townGrove TownshipIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Melrose Township’s history

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 Wikidata (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.