Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listings are the Dozier Mercantile Building and the Baccus House. Below: 6 old photos and papers and maps from 1900 on.
Vernon dates its founding to 1910 (Wikipedia’s history). Its post office opened in 1914.
Vernon was named for Bishop William Tecumseh Vernon of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
From Wikipedia’s history of Vernon.
Vernon was platted October 4, 1910, and established in June 1911 as an all-black community. It became an incorporated town in 2005 and is one of the thirteen remaining All Black towns of Oklahoma. It was named for Bishop William Tecumseh Vernon of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveNegro farmers at soil conservation meeting at Vernon, OklahomaOne decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1940Negro farmers at soil conservation meeting at Vernon,…
1940Negro farmer at soil conservation meeting at Vernon, …
1940Negro farmer at soil conservation meeting at Vernon, …
1940Meeting of Negro farmers for soil conservation talks …
1940Song director conducting singing of Negro spiritual a…
1940District soil conservation supervisor illustrating so…Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Vernon. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Vernon.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Vernon’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Vernon itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1910, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Vernon’s post office opened in 1914.
Two places: the Dozier Mercantile Building (listed 1984) and the Baccus House (2025).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 Library of Congress (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
