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History · Alexandria

Alexandria’s post office opened in 1872, and 68% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Richard E. Dill House. Its Register listing is the Richard E. Dill House. Below: maps from 1960 on and the census since 1880.

1872first post office
1on the National Register
68%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Alexandria began

When was Alexandria founded?

1872

The Alexandria post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 387 in 18802020 census: 148154 years
Founding year: the first Alexandria post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Alexandria’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 Alexandria are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Alexandria’s homes were built before 1938.Boom and bustPeaked at 447 in 1910; 148 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Alexandria’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Alexandria’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 Alexandria came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Alexandria.

Read it all →

In the 1840s and 1850s, the Oregon Trail passed through present-day Thayer County, following the Little Blue River through southeastern Nebraska before crossing into the valley of the Platte River. Settlers arrived along the trail in the late 1850s. The first permanent white residents of the county arrived in 1858, settling about two and a half miles (about four kilometers) south of present-day Alexandria, on the divide between the Little Blue and Big Sandy Creek. In 1859, Isaac Alexander arrived from Kansas with a portable gristmill; he settled on Big Sandy Creek, where he built a log cabin and stockade.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

People over time

Alexandria, census by census

010020030040050018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 447

Peaked at 447 in 1910; 148 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Timeline

Alexandria, 1872 to 1960

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1872Post officeThe Alexandria post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 447
  5. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Alexandria, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Alexandria, Nebraska downtown 22012Alexandria, Nebraska downtown 2Alexandria, Nebraska downtown 12012Alexandria, Nebraska downtown 1NEMap-doton-Alexandria2005NEMap-doton-Alexandria
On the map

Alexandria on the map, 1960 to 1980

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

Alexandria on the 1960 USGS mapAlexandria on the 1980 USGS map1960Alexandria 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 Alexandria.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Alexandria

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1973
Richard E. Dill House
Richard E. Dill House
Buildings
Richard E. Dill HouseBuilding

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

Famous people

Famous people close to Alexandria

Nobody well known was born in Alexandria itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
W
Willard SchmidtBasketball player · b. 1910
Maxine GatesActress · b. 1917
Philip MeyerAmerican journalist and scholar · b. 1930
Lulu Grace GravesAmerican dietitian · b. 1874
C
C. Lowell HarrissAmerican university professor and economist · b. 1912
D
Duane Garrison HuntCatholic bishop · b. 1884
Places that used to be

Places now gone

Alexandria’s post office has been open since 1872.

Gone or out of use
Alexandria Public Schoolschool

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

Questions about Alexandria’s history

What year was Alexandria founded?

The Alexandria post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Alexandria?

One place: the Richard E. Dill House (listed 1973).

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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.