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History · Adair

Adair’s post office opened in 1883

Most of Adair was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: maps from 1896 on and the census since 1900.

1883first post office
0on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
4famous people
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Photo: OakleyOriginals · CC BY 2.0
Quick answers

How Adair began

When was Adair founded?

1883

The Adair post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 268 in 19002020 census: 732143 years
Founding year: the first Adair post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Adair’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 Adair are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18964 editions of the USGS map, 1896 to 1985. Watch Adair change.Mapped building by building4 fire insurance maps, 1896 to 1910, drew every building in Adair.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Adair’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Adair’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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On the map

Adair on the map, 1896 to 1985

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

Adair on the 1896 USGS mapAdair on the 1901 USGS mapAdair on the 1969 USGS mapAdair on the 1985 USGS map1896Pryor sheet · 1:125,000

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Adair.

Every building

Adair, building by building, 1896–1910

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Adair fire insurance map, 1896, sheet 11896Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Adair came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Adair.

Read it all →

Adair is named after two Cherokee brothers, William Penn Adair, a politician and jurist, and Dr. Walter Thompson Adair. It was established on March 15, 1883, and incorporated in 1897. William Penn Adair lived in the area off and on for 17 years beginning in the late 1860s.

In the 1880s, a Cherokee school was started here. In 1907, shortly before statehood, the school began to admit white students.

In the most daring deed of the Dalton Gang up to that date, eight members held up the Missouri-Kansas-Texas train at Adair on July 14, 1892.

ChaptersDalton Gang train robbery

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Adair, 1883 to 1935

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1883Post officeThe Adair post office opens
  3. 1887Born hereJim Bluejacket is born here
  4. 1893Born hereEvelyn Varden is born here
  5. 1893Born hereBen Tincup is born here
  6. 1896On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  7. 20th century
  8. 1935Born hereHarley Hughes is born here
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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People over time

Adair, census by census

02004006008001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 790

Between 268 and 790 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Famous people

4 famous people were born in Adair

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
E
Evelyn VardenAmerican actress · b. 1893
Ben TincupAmerican baseball player · b. 1893
Jim BluejacketMajor League Baseball player · b. 1887
H
Harley HughesUnited States Air Force general · b. 1935

Questions about Adair’s history

What year was Adair founded?

The Adair post office opened in 1883, 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 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.