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History · Liberal

Liberal’s post office opened in 1880, and 35% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1890.

1880first post office
0on the National Register
35%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Liberal’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Liberal began, and where its name came from

When was Liberal founded?

1880

The Liberal post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 546 in 18902020 census: 629146 years

How did Liberal get its name?

Liberal was named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri, which Walser was a member of at the time.

Founding year: the first Liberal post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Name: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.The full story ↓

What stands out about Liberal’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,160 in 1920; 629 people lived here in 2020.Old housesHalf of Liberal’s homes were built before 1954.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Liberal’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewSpook Hall: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Liberal, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 1,160

Peaked at 1,160 in 1920; 629 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

The story

How Liberal came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Liberal.

Read it all →

Liberal was founded in 1880 by George Walser, an anti-religionist, agnostic lawyer and former state legislator who wished to create an atheist, "freethinker" utopia. It was named after the Liberal League in Lamar, Missouri, which Walser was a member of at the time. Walser purchased 2,000 acres (8 km2) of land and advertised across the country for atheists to join his town, which would "have neither God, Hell, Church, nor Saloon".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Liberal, 1880 to 1948

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Liberal post office opens
  3. 1887Born hereBob Harmon is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1904Born hereLester Thomas Davis is born here
  6. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 1,160
  7. 1948On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Liberal, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Spook HallDate?Spook Hall
Today1 recent
MOMap-doton-Liberal2004MOMap-doton-Liberal
On the map

Liberal on the map, 1948 to 1991

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

Liberal on the 1948 USGS mapLiberal on the 1950 USGS mapLiberal on the 1991 USGS map1948Liberal 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 Liberal.

Every building

Liberal, building by building, 1914–1916

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Liberal fire insurance map, 1914, sheet 11914Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

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.

Spook Hall
Retake this viewSpook Hall

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

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

2 famous people were born in Liberal

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Bob HarmonAmerican baseball player · b. 1887
L
Lester Thomas DavisAmerican politician · b. 1904

Questions about Liberal’s history

What year was Liberal founded?

The Liberal post office opened in 1880, 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 (1), the Library of Congress (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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.