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Addison, PA borough hall, Aug. 2024Photo: Mr. Matté (if there is an issue with this image, contact me using this image's Commons talk page, my Commons user talk page, or my English Wikipedia user talk page; I'll know about it a lot faster) · CC BY-SA 4.0
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History · Addison Township

Addison Township dates to 1798, and 19% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Wable-Augustine Tavern. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1922 on, and the census since 1920.

1798founded
1on the National Register
19%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
From Addison Township’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Addison Township began

When was Addison Township founded?

1798

Addison Township dates its founding to 1798 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1920.

First census: 190 in 19202020 census: 931228 years
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1819.The full story ↓

What stands out about Addison Township’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Seven other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Smythfield
1819–1824
Smithfield
1824–1827
Somerfield
1827–1943
Listonburg
1877–today
Silbaugh
1880–1894
Dumas
1891–1913
Unamis
1902–1916
Beachly
1906–1922
18101920today
Hamlets and corners on the map
BeachlyDumasListonburgSomerfieldUnamis
Gone or out of use
Eichorn QuarrymineMount Davis Airportairport
1cemetery inside Addison Township
Turney

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

People over time

Addison Township, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020Peak: 370

Peaked at 370 in 1970; 166 people lived here in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

On the map

Addison Township on the map, 1922 to 1994

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

Addison Township on the 1922 USGS mapAddison Township on the 1931 USGS mapAddison Township on the 1967 USGS mapAddison Township on the 1973 USGS mapAddison Township on the 1994 USGS map1922Confluence sheet · 1:62,500

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

The story

How Addison Township came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Addison Township.

Read it all →

Peter Augustine laid out the town of Petersburg, which later became Addison, in 1818. Henry Stuller built the first house here in 1820, the same year in which John Brown built a tavern. A schoolhouse was constructed about 1832, and a foundry was begun by Thomas & Nathan Cooper in 1844.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Addison Township, 1798 to 1970

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

  1. 18th century
  2. 1798
    FoundingAddison Township is established
  3. 19th century
  4. 1819Post officeThe Smythfield post office opens
  5. 1824Post officeThe Smythfield post office closes
  6. 1824Post officeThe Smithfield post office opens
  7. 1827Post officeThe Smithfield post office closes
  8. 1827Post officeThe Somerfield post office opens
  9. 1860In the archiveMap of Petersburg, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, from 1860 Somerset County Map by Edward…
  10. 20th century
  11. 1900In the archiveAddison, PA, built 1814, N. HY. Rates of Toll on the Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania
  12. 1922On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  13. 1943Post officeThe Somerfield post office closes
  14. 1970CensusPopulation peaks at 370
By decade

Addison Township, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Addison, PA, built 1814, N. HY. Rates of Toll on the Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania
Retake this viewAddison, PA, built 1814, N. HY. Rates of Toll on the Cumberland Road in Pennsylvania, 1900

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Addison Township’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Addison Township

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1995
Wable-Augustine Tavern
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Federal1

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

Help out

Start Addison Township’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Questions about Addison Township’s history

What year was Addison Township founded?

In 1798, according to Wikidata. Addison Township’s post office opened in 1819, and the census of 1920 counted 190 people here.

What is on the National Register in Addison Township?

One place: the Wable-Augustine Tavern (listed 1995).

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 Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (4), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.