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History · Saluda

Saluda’s post office opened in 1878, and 39% of its homes were built before 1940

5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 16 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1959 on, and the census since 1900.

1878first post office
5on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Saluda’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Saluda began

When was Saluda founded?

1878

The Saluda post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 211 in 19002020 census: 631148 years
Founding year: the first Saluda post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Saluda’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Landmarks on the Register5 places on the National Register.Old housesHalf of Saluda’s homes were built before 1962.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Saluda’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewWoman sitting on cabin porch: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the National Register

5 listings protect 22 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
5
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
22
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Church of the Transfiguration
Church of the Transfiguration, built 1889Saluda Main Street Historic DistrictRailway Clerks' Mountain HouseRyder HallCharlton Leland, built 1914
BuildingsDistricts

Architectural styles listings

Colonial Revival2
Carpenter Gothic1
Commercial Style1
Stick1
Late Gothic Revival1
Craftsman1
Church of the TransfigurationCarpenter Gothic · Built 1889
Saluda Main Street Historic DistrictCommercial Style
Railway Clerks' Mountain HouseCraftsman
Ryder HallColonial Revival
Charlton LelandQueen Anne · Built 1914

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

The story

How Saluda came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Saluda.

Read it all →

Saluda's name came from the Cherokee word Tsaludiyi, meaning "green corn place". The first name of the area by European settlers was "Pace's Ridge", from the Pace family who inhabited the area. Many of the original families were Scots-Irish who left Pennsylvania around the time of the Whiskey Rebellion in the early 1790s.

Count Joseph Marie Gabriel St. Xavier de Choiseul, French consul to Charleston, South Carolina, and cousin to Louis Philippe I of France, bought land in 1831 from the Barings of nearby Flat Rock and built his home, Saluda Cottages.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Saluda, 1878 to 1972

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1878Post officeThe Saluda post office opens
  3. 1889BuiltChurch of the Transfiguration is built
  4. 20th century
  5. 1911Born hereWalter Stephenson is born here
  6. 1914BuiltCharlton Leland is built
  7. 1939In the archiveWoman sitting on cabin porch
  8. 1959On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1972In the archiveSOU 4501 (saluda)(postcard)
By decade

Saluda, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s1 item
Woman sitting on cabin porch1939Woman sitting on cabin porch
1940s–1960snothing 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
1970s1 item
SOU 4501 (saluda)(postcard)1972SOU 4501 (saluda)(postcard)Postcard
1980s–1990snothing 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
Today5 recent
Saluda, NC 28773, USA2014Saluda, NC 28773, USASaluda, NC 28773, USA - panoramio (1)2014Saluda, NC 28773, USA - panoramio (1)Ryder Hall2012Ryder HallCharlton Leland2012Charlton LelandNCMap-doton-Saluda2004NCMap-doton-Saluda
On the map

Saluda on the map, 1959 to 1983

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

Saluda on the 1959 USGS mapSaluda on the 1983 USGS map1959Tigerville sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Saluda.

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.

Woman sitting on cabin porch
Retake this viewWoman sitting on cabin porch, 1939

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Saluda, census by census

01002003004005006007001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 713

Between 211 and 713 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Questions about Saluda’s history

What year was Saluda founded?

The Saluda post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Saluda?

5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Church of the Transfiguration (listed 1982, the first), and 1 historic district, the Saluda Main Street Historic District, with 16 contributing buildings. 22 historic buildings in all.

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 (7), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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) 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.