Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Valley Park

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
C−History
History · Valley Park

Valley Park’s post office opened in 1886

More historic than 22% of U.S. towns · #199 of 247 in Missouri. What drives it

Most of Valley Park was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. Below: maps from 1933 on and the census since 1920.

1886first post office
0on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: JDMcGreg · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Valley Park began

When was Valley Park founded?

1886

The Valley Park post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Three smaller post offices, Nasby (1878), Ranken (1884) and Meramec (1892), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 899 in 19202020 census: 6,885140 years

How historic is Valley Park?

C−

More historic than 22% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Valley Park post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Valley Park’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Valley Park is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #199 of 247 in Missouri. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Valley Park’s overall grade.
Founding era1886, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19405.6% of homes (±2.5) · typical MO town 8.4% · U.S. 8.4%CNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical MO town 2.4 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 22%
NewerOlder
Missouri towns of 2,500+ (247)Ahead of 20%

Missouri towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical Missouri town has 2.4 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Valley Park’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (23% of Missouri towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to C. The pre-1940 share (±2.5 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.

Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →

What stands out about Valley Park’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 Valley Park are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages3 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Valley Park, and 3 old place names are still on the map.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Valley Park’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and old corners

Valley Park’s post office has been open since 1886. Three other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Nasby
1878–1886
Ranken
1884–1893
Valley Park
1886–today
Meramec
1892–1892
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Peerless ParkPettys HillRanken

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

The story

How Valley Park came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Valley Park.

Read it all →

Descendants of the Mississippian culture still had a settlement along the Meramec River in the mid-18th century, until the Native Americans were pushed out by colonial French and German immigrant farmers in the 1760s. The developing village over time was known as Nasby, Sulphur Springs, Quinette, Meramec, and finally Valley Park by circa 1890. It had one of the first post offices established in St. Louis County. It developed as a railroad hub for the Missouri Pacific and St. Louis-San Francisco rail lines.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Valley Park, 1878 to 1933

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Nasby post office opens
  3. 1884Post officeThe Ranken post office opens
  4. 1886Post officeThe Nasby post office closes
  5. 1886Post officeThe Valley Park post office opens
  6. 1893Post officeThe Ranken post office closes
  7. 20th century
  8. 1933On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Valley Park, decade by decade

Today2 recent
Valley Park City Hall2012Valley Park City HallPulsatrix perspicillata World Bird Sanctuary2008Pulsatrix perspicillata World Bird Sanctuary
On the map

Valley Park on the map, 1933 to 1993

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

Valley Park on the 1933 USGS mapValley Park on the 1940 USGS mapValley Park on the 1954 USGS mapValley Park on the 1968 USGS mapValley Park on the 1974 USGS mapValley Park on the 1982 USGS mapValley Park on the 1993 USGS map1933Kirkwood 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 Valley Park.

People over time

Valley Park, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,5003,0003,5004,0004,5005,0005,5006,0006,5007,0007,500192019401960198020002020Peak: 6,942

Between 899 and 6,942 people in every census since 1920.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Valley Park

Nobody well known was born in Valley Park itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Matt BomerAmerican actor · b. 1977
Marianne MooreAmerican poet · b. 1887
E
Edward T. HallAmerican anthropologist · b. 1914
SlayyyterAmerican singer and songwriter · b. 1996
Jim TalentAmerican politician · b. 1956
J
Josephine JohnsonAmerican novelist, nature writer, poet · b. 1910
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Manchester3 historic placesBTwin OaksIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Valley Park’s history

What year was Valley Park founded?

The Valley Park post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Valley Park rank for history?

Valley Park is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #199 of 247 in Missouri. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

How old are the homes in Valley Park?

6% of Valley Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.5 points), against a typical 8.4% for a Missouri town; the median home was built in 1990.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (2), 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.