Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Marble

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
–Not graded
History · Marble

Marble’s post office opened in 1881, and 14% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1935 on.

1881first post office
0on the National Register
14%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Marble began

When was Marble founded?

1881

The Marble post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 278145 years
Founding year: the first Marble post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Marble’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 Marble are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Marble’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Marble’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
The story

How Marble came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Marble.

Read it all →

The original name of the Marble community is Marble Springs. The name was later shortened to Marble with the baptist church on Marble Road still bearing the original name. Marble got its name from various marble quarries in the community. The vast majority of all marble quarried in the communty was used as cemetery headstones across nine states. The quarries opened in 1902 and produced Regal Blue and Confederate Gray shades which were shipped on the Southern Railway's Murphy Branch. The Cherokee County Courthouse, built in 1926, was the first building made of marble from the community. It is one of few county courthouses in the U.S. constructed entirely of marble. Marble from the community was also used to build Fontana Dam, the tallest dam in the Eastern United States and the fourth-tallest dam in the world at the time of its construction. By 1934, the Columbia Marble Company in Marble…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Marble, 1867 to 1935

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1867Post officeThe Marble post office closes
  3. 1881Post officeThe Marble post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1928Born hereLoyal Jones is born here
  6. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Marble, decade by decade

Today18 recent
Marble Community Water System Office2019Marble Community Water System OfficeMarble Community Water System Office2019Marble Community Water System OfficeMarble Community Water System Office2019Marble Community Water System OfficeMarble Community Water System Office2019Marble Community Water System OfficeMarble Community Water System Office2019Marble Community Water System OfficeHyatt Creek Road2019Hyatt Creek RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadGibby Road2019Gibby RoadColumbia Marble Company Sign2019Columbia Marble Company SignBluff Road2019Bluff RoadBluff Road2019Bluff RoadAirport Road2019Airport RoadAirport Road2019Airport RoadAirport Road2019Airport Road
On the map

Marble on the map, 1935 to 1990

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

Marble on the 1935 USGS mapMarble on the 1973 USGS mapMarble on the 1990 USGS map1935Marble 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 Marble.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Marble had its own post office from 1881 to 1867.

Marble
1881–1867
18801950today

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

Questions about Marble’s history

What year was Marble founded?

The Marble post office opened in 1881, 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 (18), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.