History · Westville

Westville’s post office opened in 1895, and 11% of its homes were built before 1940

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Its Register listings are the Buffington Hotel and the Opera Block. Below: maps from 1898 on and the census since 1900.

1895first post office

2on the National Register

11%homes built before 1940

1famous people

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Quick answers

How Westville began

When was Westville founded?

1895

The Westville post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 296 in 19002020 census: 1,364131 years

How historic is Westville?

B⁻

More historic than 50% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓

Founding year: the first Westville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

History grade

What drives Westville’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Westville is more historic than 50% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.

B⁻

HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Westville’s overall grade.

Founding era1895, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC⁺Homes built before 194010.9% of homes (±9.3) · typical OK town 7.0% · U.S. 8.4%B⁻National Register2 listings, 11.5 per 10,000 residents · typical OK town 5.9 · U.S. 2.4B

All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 50%

NewerOlder

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 Westville’s 11.5 sits above most of its state (68% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 2 listings outnumber those of 60% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.3 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 Westville’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 Westville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18983 editions of the USGS map, 1898 to 1972. Watch Westville change.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Westville’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Westville’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos

00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s

0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.

Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

On the map

Westville on the map, 1898 to 1972

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

1898Tahlequah 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 Westville.

The story

How Westville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Westville.

Read it all →

Before statehood, Westville was a community in the Goingsnake District of the Cherokee Nation. The town was founded in 1895, when the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad (later acquired by the Kansas City Southern Railroad) was constructing a rail line from Kansas City to the Gulf Coast. The Westville post office was established on November 18, 1895. The town name honored Jim West, who lived one mile south of nearby Cincinnati, Arkansas, and whose son, Jim West Jr., was an attorney for the Kansas City Southern Railway.

The original plat for the included 175 acres. Expansion came soon with the development of the William D. Williams addition and the Pat Dore Addition.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Westville, 1839 to 1898

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

19th century
1839Born hereClement V. Rogers is born here
1895Post officeThe Westville post office opens
1898On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey

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.

Add from your album

On the National Register

2 historic places in Westville

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed

National Historic Landmarks

none yet

historic buildings protected

each building in a district counts

first listed

1984

Buffington Hotel

Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Plains Commercial Style1

Buffington HotelBuilding

All 2 listings

Opera BlockBuilding · listed 1984

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Westville, census by census

Between 296 and 1,632 people in every census since 1900.

13 censuses, 1900–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Old GreenIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Westville’s history

What year was Westville founded?

The Westville post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Westville rank for history?

Westville is more historic than 50% 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 Westville?

Two places: the Buffington Hotel (listed 1984) and the Opera Block (1984).

How old are the homes in Westville?

11% of Westville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.3 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1979.

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).

From the National Register of Historic Places (2), 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) 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.

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