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History · Portage

Portage’s post office opened in 1853, and 44% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Edgerley and the G.A.R. Memorial Hall. Its Register listings are the Edgerley and the G.A.R. Memorial Hall. Below: maps from 1905 on and the census since 1850.

1853first post office

2on the National Register

44%homes built before 1940

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Quick answers

How Portage began

When was Portage founded?

1853

The Portage post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Oakland (1823) and Hunt's Hollow (1827), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 2,478 in 18502020 census: 763173 years

Founding year: the first Portage post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Portage’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 Portage are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Portage, and 4 old place names are still on the map.On the map since 19053 editions of the USGS map, 1905 to 1972. Watch Portage change.Old housesHalf of Portage’s homes were built before 1960.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Portage’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Portage’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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Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Portage had its own post office from 1853 to 1920. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Oakland

1823–1918

Hunt's Hollow

1827–1873

Portage

1853–1920

Hunt

1873–today

18201920today

Hamlets and corners on the map

HuntHunt HollowLewisOakland

3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Portage

Colonel George Williams And FamilyOaklandPennycook

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

On the map

Portage on the map, 1905 to 1972

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

1905Portage 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 Portage.

The story

How Portage came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Portage.

Read it all →

The ancestral home of the Haudenosaunee, European American settlers arrived in the Portage area by the early 1800s. Portage was formed from part of the town of Nunda in 1827.

The Erie Railroad Company built a wooden trestle bridge over the Genesee River just above the Upper Falls in the mid-1800s. Construction started on July 1, 1851, and the bridge opened on August 14, 1852. At the time, it was the longest and tallest wooden bridge in the world. In the early morning hours of May 6, 1875, the bridge was destroyed in a tremendous fire.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Portage, 1876–1881

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

it to make to surmount to the summit level at Portage. The deep cutting of the canal,- its numerous locks and picturesque scenery in this and the town of Portage, are worthy of frequent visits from tourists and sight-seers. Indeed the scenery about here is beautiful, in some instances grand, and at… — **A history of Livingston County, New York**1876 · page 644Read the page →
Read the text
it to make to surmount to the summit level at Portage. The deep cutting of the canal,- its numerous locks and picturesque scenery in this and the town of Portage, are worthy of frequent visits from tourists and sight-seers. Indeed the scenery about here is beautiful, in some instances grand, and attract many summer pleasure-seekers to the vicinity.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Churches. — Of the religious societies organized for the worship of God in the town of Portage, it appears that the Presbyterians were the first to form a permanent organization. The church was organized and united with the Presbytery of Ontario, Jan. 18, 1820, but was transferred to the Presbytery… — **1687. History of Livingston County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers**1881 · page 267Read the page →
Read the text
Churches. — Of the religious societies organized for the worship of God in the town of Portage, it appears that the Presbyterians were the first to form a permanent organization. The church was organized and united with the Presbytery of Ontario, Jan. 18, 1820, but was transferred to the Presbytery of Angelica, Feb. 24, 1829. No early records of this church can be found to establish the pre-
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.

Timeline

Portage, 1823 to 1920

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

19th century
1823Post officeThe Oakland post office opens
1827Post officeThe Hunt's Hollow post office opens
1853Post officeThe Portage post office opens
1873Post officeThe Hunt's Hollow post office closes
20th century
1905On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
1918Post officeThe Oakland post office closes
1920Post officeThe Portage post office closes

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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On the National Register

2 historic places in Portage

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

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1980

Edgerley

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Roman Classical1

Greek Revival1

Italianate1

EdgerleyRoman Classical

G.A.R. Memorial HallItalianate

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

People over time

Portage, census by census

Between 731 and 2,478 people in every census since 1850.

17 censuses, 1850–2010.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Genesee Falls2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town Nunda3 historic placesA⁺HumeIts storyB⁺GrangerIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town Mount Morris12 historic placesA⁺

Questions about Portage’s history

What year was Portage founded?

The Portage post office opened in 1853, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Portage?

Two places: the Edgerley (listed 1980) and the G.A.R. Memorial Hall (2006).

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 the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System 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.

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