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History · South Valley

Half of South Valley’s homes were built after 1985

Most of South Valley was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 1850.

0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
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What stands out about South Valley’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 South Valley are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,249 in 1890; 250 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start South Valley’s collection

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

South Valley, census by census

02004006008001,0001,2001850190019502000Peak: 1,249

Peaked at 1,249 in 1890; 250 people lived here in 2020.

18 censuses, 1850–2020.

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

The story

How South Valley came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of South Valley.

Read it all →

The town was first settled in 1798 by Quaker missionaries, who attempted to teach the local Indians agriculture and skills needed to cooperate with non-native settlers. The Quakers started a school in 1803 and erected a sawmill in 1812, but the mill caused dissension in the tribe and, at the request of Seneca leaders Cornplanter and Handsome Lake, was pulled down. Cornplanter (who spent his last years on a tract of land just south of South Valley) maintained respectful relations with the Quakers in his later life, despite differences with the group in regard to cultural assimilation. In 1838 the Quakers intervened to prevent the Ogden Land Company from acquiring the Senecas' land (as had been agreed to in the Treaty of Buffalo Creek), and in 1842 a new Treaty of Buffalo Creek allowed the Senecas to keep their land. The town of South Valley was formed in 1847 from the south part of the t…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 map

South Valley on the map, 1942 to 1973

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

South Valley on the 1942 USGS mapSouth Valley on the 1960 USGS mapSouth Valley on the 1973 USGS map1942Jamestown 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 South Valley.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

Gone or out of use
Coles Landing Airportairport

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Randolph1 historic placeA+ColdspringIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCarrollIts storyB

Questions about South Valley’s history

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
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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, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.