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History · Chattanooga

Chattanooga’s post office opened in 1903

Most of Chattanooga was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1971.

1903first post office
0on the National Register
10%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Jphill19 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Chattanooga began

When was Chattanooga founded?

1903

The Chattanooga post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 400123 years
Founding year: the first Chattanooga post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Chattanooga’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 Chattanooga are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Chattanooga’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Chattanooga’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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The story

How Chattanooga came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Chattanooga.

Read it all →

Chattanooga emerged after the opening of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation to non-Indian settlement on August 6, 1901. Named by N. C. Sisson after his hometown in Tennessee, the Chattanooga Town Company, comprising Sisson, T. E. Richey, and E. C. Blake, obtained the townsite patent on December 18, 1902. The post office was established in January of the following year.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Chattanooga, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Chattanooga OK Downtown 3-20252025Chattanooga OK Downtown 3-2025Chattanooga OK Civic Center 3-20252025Chattanooga OK Civic Center 3-2025Goodknight Park2019Goodknight ParkChattanooga City Limits in Oklahoma2019Chattanooga City Limits in OklahomaChattanooga City Hall in Oklahoma2019Chattanooga City Hall in OklahomaOKMap-doton-Chattanooga2004OKMap-doton-Chattanooga

Questions about Chattanooga’s history

What year was Chattanooga founded?

The Chattanooga post office opened in 1903, 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 →
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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 Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) 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.