Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Alma

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 · Alma

Alma dates to 1854, and 29% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1925 on and the census since 1860.

1854founded
0on the National Register
29%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Alma began

When was Alma founded?

1854

Alma dates its founding to 1854 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.

First census: 578 in 18602020 census: 781172 years
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1850.The full story ↓

What stands out about Alma’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 Alma are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,509 in 1890; 785 people lived here in 2020.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Alma, and 2 old place names are still on the map.On the map since 19253 editions of the USGS map, 1925 to 1965. Watch Alma change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Alma’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Alma’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
People over time

Alma, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,600190019502000Peak: 1,509

Peaked at 1,509 in 1890; 785 people lived here in 2020.

17 censuses, 1860–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Alma’s post office has been open since 1855. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Shongo
1850–1917
Alma
1855–today
Pikeville
1862–1917
Allentown
1881–today
18501940today
Hamlets and corners on the map
AllentownPikeville
Gone or out of use
Ford Brook SchoolschoolSchool Number 5schoolWhite Hill Schoolschool
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Alma
AllentownBellamySunnyside

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

The story

How Alma came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Alma.

Read it all →

The area was first settled circa 1833. The Town of Alma was established in 1854 from part of the Town of Willing. From 1881 to January 1893, several of the settlements in the Township (most notably Allentown) were on the Wellsville-Eldred Main Line of the Bradford, Eldred & Cuba Railroad (BE&C). The BE&C was a 36" narrow-gauge railroad built to serve the Allegany County oil boom. With the end of the boom and loss of the passenger and freight traffic therefrom, the railroad entered receivership (bankruptcy) and was abandoned. Today, the railheads for Alma Township are Wellsville and Friendship.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Alma, 1850 to 1925

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1850Post officeThe Shongo post office opens
  3. 1854
    FoundingAlma is established
  4. 1854Born hereGeorge B. Shaw is born here
  5. 1855Post officeThe Alma post office opens
  6. 1862Post officeThe Pikeville post office opens
  7. 1890CensusPopulation peaks at 1,509
  8. 20th century
  9. 1917Post officeThe Shongo post office closes
  10. 1917Post officeThe Pikeville post office closes
  11. 1925On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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.
Add from your album
On the map

Alma on the map, 1925 to 1965

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

Alma on the 1925 USGS mapAlma on the 1939 USGS mapAlma on the 1965 USGS map1925Belmont 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 Alma.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Bolivar1 historic placeA−ScioIts storyBWillingIts storyB−Wellsville4 historic placesA+

Questions about Alma’s history

What year was Alma founded?

In 1854, according to Wikidata. Alma’s post office opened in 1850, and the census of 1860 counted 578 people here.

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 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.