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B−History
History · Montreat

Montreat’s post office opened in 1898, and 37% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Below: 13 old photos and papers, maps from 1935 on, and the census since 1970.

1898first post office
0on the National Register
37%homes built before 1940
13old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Montreat’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Montreat began

When was Montreat founded?

1898

The Montreat post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 581 in 19702020 census: 901128 years

How historic is Montreat?

B−

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives Montreat’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Montreat is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Montreat’s overall grade.
Founding era1898, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 194036.7% of homes (±10.6) · typical NC town 4.1% · U.S. 8.4%ANational RegisterNo listings counted · typical NC town 12.5 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C−
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 50%
NewerOlder

North Carolina towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical North Carolina town has 12.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Montreat’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (19% of North Carolina 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 B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±10.6 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 Montreat’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A town in old photos13 old photos, postcards and papers, 1896–1994.Old housesHalf of Montreat’s homes were built before 1962.
★ What stands out · By decade

Montreat, decade by decade

5 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s–1900s7 items
View of Lobby, Assembly Inn1896View of Lobby, Assembly InnHotel Montreat1907Hotel MontreatOn the road to Montreat. Montreat, N.C1907On the road to Montreat. Montreat, N.CAlba Hotel1907Alba HotelA far view1907A far viewFirst homes1907First homesLooking backward from trail to Brushy Mt1907Looking backward from trail to Brushy Mt
1910s–1920s4 items
The Assembly Inn1913The Assembly InnDining room, Assembly Inn1913Dining room, Assembly InnMontreat gate (Pioneer Women, 1923)1923Montreat gate (Pioneer Women, 1923)Woman's Advisory Coummittee of 1922 at Winsborough Building, Montreat, NC (Pioneer Women, 1923)1923Woman's Advisory Coummittee of 1922 at Winsborough Bu…
1930s–1980snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
1990s2 items
Boletus flammans 1350831994Boletus flammans 135083Phallus duplicatus 752461994Phallus duplicatus 75246
Today5 recent
A glimpse of Howerton Hall, Montreat, N.C2011A glimpse of Howerton Hall, Montreat, N.CPostcardA glimpse of Howerton Hall, Montreat, N.C2011A glimpse of Howerton Hall, Montreat, N.CPostcardGreetings from Montreat, North Carolina - Large Letter Postcard2010Greetings from Montreat, North Carolina - Large Lette…DocumentAmanita bisporigera 6742004Amanita bisporigera 6742004-07-17 Geoglossum fallax E.J. Durand 42220042004-07-17 Geoglossum fallax E.J. Durand 422
The story

How Montreat came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Montreat.

Read it all →

The town of Montreat was incorporated in 1967. Much of the property in the area is still owned by the Mountain Retreat Association, formed in 1897 by John Collins, a Congregationalist minister from Connecticut. Funding for the retreat's creation was secured from candy manufacturer and philanthropist John S. Huyler, founder of Huyler's. The name of Montreat is a portmanteau of the words "Mountain" and "Retreat". In 1907, control of the Mountain Retreat Association (MRA) passed to the Presbyterian Church in the US, and for many years Montreat has been host to religious conferences, mainly Presbyterian, organized through the MRA. Woman's Auxiliary of the Presbyterian Church, U.S. was established in Montreat in 1912. Significant organizations in the contemporary town of Montreat, in addition to the Mountain Retreat Association, include Montreat Presbyterian Church: PC(USA), Montreat College…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Montreat, 1896 to 1994

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1896In the archiveView of Lobby, Assembly Inn
  3. 1898Post officeThe Montreat post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1907In the archiveHotel Montreat
  6. 1913In the archiveThe Assembly Inn
  7. 1923In the archiveMontreat gate (Pioneer Women, 1923)
  8. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1994In the archiveBoletus flammans 135083
On the map

Montreat on the map, 1935 to 1994

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

Montreat on the 1935 USGS mapMontreat on the 1942 USGS mapMontreat on the 1969 USGS mapMontreat on the 1994 USGS map1935Montreat 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 Montreat.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

View of Lobby, Assembly Inn
Retake this viewView of Lobby, Assembly Inn, 1896

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Montreat’s page.

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Montreat, census by census

02004006008001,000198020002020Peak: 901

Between 581 and 901 people in every census since 1970.

6 censuses, 1970–2020.

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

Help out

Finish Montreat’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
4 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewView of Lobby, Assembly Inn: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Black Mountain10 historic placesB

Questions about Montreat’s history

What year was Montreat founded?

The Montreat post office opened in 1898, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Montreat rank for history?

Montreat is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. 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 Montreat?

37% of Montreat’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.6 points), against a typical 4.1% for a North Carolina town; the median home was built in 1962.

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 (9), the Library of Congress (9), 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.