Cliffside’s post office opened in 1901, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
Most of Cliffside was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Its Register listing is the Cliffside Public School. Below: maps from 1959 on.
Cliffside was founded as a company town by Raleigh Rutherford (R.R.) Haynes, who established a textile mill there on the Second Broad River in 1899. Haynes had previously helped to build up the mills and factories of nearby Henrietta and Caroleen High Shoals, a former community in this vicinity, was a post office as early as 1828.
It was entirely owned by Haynes and his business partners, who owned all of the property, homes and farmland in the town. The farm acreage was rented to tenant farmers, and the homes were rented to Haynes' employees at low rates. Homes cost about $0.25 weekly for each room in the house. Because it was privately owned, it had no town council or city limits, and minimal crime.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
