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History · Roper

Roper’s post office opened in 1889, and 26% of its homes were built before 1940

1889first post office
0on the National Register
26%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Quick answers

How Roper began

When was Roper founded?

1889

The Roper post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Lee's Mills (1803), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 485137 years
Founding year: the first Roper post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

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

Start Roper’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story so far

Roper, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Roper yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Roper is a town in Washington County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 485 at the 2020 Census. It was known as Lee's Mill (named for Thomas Lee) until 1890, when the John L. Roper Lumber Company was established in the town and its name changed to Roper.

Its first post office opened in 1889. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 611 to 485 (-21%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Roper, 1803 to 1916

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1803Post officeThe Lee's Mills post office opens
  3. 1889Post officeThe Lee's Mills post office closes
  4. 1889Post officeThe Roper post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1916Born hereFred W. Bateman is born here
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Roper’s post office has been open since 1889. Another post office, Lee's Mills, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Lee's Mills
1803–1889
Roper
1889–today
18001910today
Gone or out of use
Old Court Housebuilding

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

Questions about Roper’s history

What year was Roper founded?

The Roper post office opened in 1889, 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 →
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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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.