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History · Niverville

Niverville’s post office opened in 1846, and 42% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1903 on, and the census since 2000.

1846first post office
0on the National Register
42%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Niverville began

When was Niverville founded?

1846

The Niverville post office opened in 1846, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 1,737 in 20002020 census: 1,508180 years
Founding year: the first Niverville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Niverville’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19035 editions of the USGS map, 1903 to 1980. Watch Niverville change.Old housesHalf of Niverville’s homes were built before 1953.Deep rootsA post office since 1846: 180 years of Niverville.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Niverville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewNiverville (Village); Kinderhook (Towns…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Niverville on the map, 1903 to 1980

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

Niverville on the 1903 USGS mapNiverville on the 1933 USGS mapNiverville on the 1949 USGS mapNiverville on the 1953 USGS mapNiverville on the 1980 USGS map1903Kinderhook 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 Niverville.

The story

How Niverville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Niverville.

Read it all →

Niverville was first settled by the Dutch; the first house was built circa 1707 by Louren Lourenson Van Alen, who obtained the Kinderhoeck Patent—a land grant—in 1629 from Jan Hendrickse DeBruyn, including the area now known as Niverville. Located within the hamlet, Kinderhook Lake—originally called Wogasawoochuk or "Big Fish Lake" by the Mohican early Native American inhabitants—provided fertile, peat-rich soil that supported numerous orchards and farms.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Niverville in 1878

Passages that mention Niverville, cut from the printed page as they were published.

The Victor mower-works were established at Niverville in 1875. They occupy a factory, east of the depot, built of brick, thirty by eighty feet, three stories high, with a large wing containing a thirty-five horse-power engine, which supplies the motor of the establishment. The Victor machine is the…
History of Columbia County, New York. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1878Read the page →
Read the text

The Victor mower-works were established at Niverville in 1875. They occupy a factory, east of the depot, built of brick, thirty by eighty feet, three stories high, with a large wing containing a thirty-five horse-power engine, which supplies the motor of the establishment. The Victor machine is the invention of E. M. Krum, who carried on their manufacture, in a small "way, at Nassau twenty yeare ago, and subsequently at Chatham. Continued im-

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Niverville, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1870s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1870s1 item
Niverville (Village); Kinderhook (Township)1873Niverville (Village); Kinderhook (Township)
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.

Niverville (Village); Kinderhook (Township)
Retake this viewNiverville (Village); Kinderhook (Township), 1873

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Niverville, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001,4001,6001,80020002020Peak: 1,737

Between 1,508 and 1,737 people in every census since 2000.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

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

Questions about Niverville’s history

What year was Niverville founded?

The Niverville post office opened in 1846, 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 →
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 (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.