Most of Boley was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them the Boley Historic District, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 12 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1910.
Founding year: the first Boley post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Boley’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Boley is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Boley’s overall grade.
Oklahoma towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oklahoma town has 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Boley’s 99.3 sits above most of its state (94% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 12 historic buildings outnumber those of 77% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.8 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Boley’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Creek Freedmen in the Indian Territory, who were the descendants of Black slaves held by the Creek tribe and allotted 160 acres of land each as a result of the Dawes Commission, set up independent townships, of which Boley was one. The town was established on land owned by Abigail Barnett, the daughter of a Creek Freedman.
As Boley and its surrounding area already possessed a well-established and independent Black community, many Black Southerners who eventually emigrated there perceived the town as a safe haven from the South's limited economic opportunities, white supremacist paramilitaries (e.g. White League, Red Shirts, and the Ku Klux Klan), and discriminatory laws re-imposed at the collapse of Reconstruction.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Boley post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Boley rank for history?
Boley is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Boley?
One place: the Boley Historic District (listed 1975).
How old are the homes in Boley?
2% of Boley’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.8 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1985.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (8), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
★ Landmark
1926
2025
2025
2004
