Founding year: the first Poplarville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Poplarville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Poplarville is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #70 of 100 in Mississippi. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Poplarville’s overall grade.
Mississippi towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Mississippi town has 71.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Poplarville’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of Mississippi 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 D to C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.4 points). 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 Poplarville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Poplarville was named for Poplar Jim Smith, the original owner of the town site.
Pearl County was officially formed in 1872. The county courthouse was located in the Masonic building but it burned not long after the county was formed. The records went in the fire. Due to the fire, substandard tax rolls and the poor numbers of residents the county was abolished in 1878.
In the year 1890 the new Pearl RIVER county was formed by an act of the Legislature that appropriated lands from both Hancock county to the south and Marion county to the north. Just prior to the establishment of the new county a railroad was built through the area, the New Orleans and Northeastern which greatly helped grow the areas population.
The Poplarville post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Poplarville rank for history?
Poplarville is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #70 of 100 in Mississippi. 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 Poplarville?
10% of Poplarville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 4.5% for a Mississippi town; the median home was built in 1979.
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 (6), 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.
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