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.
1893Sheet 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.
Timeline
Oregon, 1841 to 1926
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Oregon was originally called Finley, and under that name was platted in June 1841; it was replatted on October 21, 1841 as Oregon. The present name refers to the Oregon Country, which was at the time considered a prime destination of pioneer emigrants passing through the area. A post office called Oregon has been in operation since 1843. It was a significant trading post in the Platte Purchase region of Missouri for the first couple of decades of existence. In 1873, the Northwest Missouri Normal School was built in Oregon, at a cost of $22,000 ($586,000 in 2025 dollars).
The American settlements in Oregon are confined to the western section of Oregon, and are principally in the beautiful and fertile Valley of the Willamette. Oregon City is two thousand three hun¬ dred miles from St. Louis, on the east bank of the Willamette, just below the falls, at the head of navigation, and about eighteen miles from the mouth of the river. It is the largest town in Oregon.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
About the same time, Captain Wyeth, of Massachusetts, at¬ tempted to establish commercial relations with the countries on the Columbia, to which the name of Oregon then began to be universally applied. Ilis plan was like that of Astor, with the additional scheme of transporting the salmon of the Oregon rivers to the United States. lie made two overland expeditions to Oregon, established Fort Hall as a trading-post, and another, mainly for fishing purposes, near the mouth of the Willamette.
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
Oregon, decade by decade
One decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
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 (8), Wikipedia, 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, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) 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.
1894
Date?
2026
2026
2013
2009
2004
