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History · Fairview

Fairview dates to 1830, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1907 on and the census since 1880.

1830founded
0on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
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Photo: Nyttend · Public domain
Quick answers

How Fairview began

When was Fairview founded?

1830

Fairview dates its founding to 1830 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.

First census: 333 in 18802020 census: 180196 years
Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1830.The full story ↓

What stands out about Fairview’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 Fairview are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19073 editions of the USGS map, 1907 to 1972. Watch Fairview change.Deep rootsEstablished in 1830: 196 years of Fairview.Old housesHalf of Fairview’s homes were built before 1960.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fairview’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fairview’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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On the map

Fairview on the map, 1907 to 1972

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

Fairview on the 1907 USGS mapFairview on the 1963 USGS mapFairview on the 1972 USGS map1907Foxburg 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 Fairview.

Timeline

Fairview, 1830 to 1919

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1830
    FoundingFairview is established
  3. 1830Post officeThe Baldwin post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1907On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1919Post officeThe Baldwin post office closes
The story

How Fairview came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fairview.

Read it all →

While early settlers were present in the Fairview area in the late eighteenth century, the streets and lots were laid out in 1830 by William McCleary and Wiliam Hawk. Between the years 1826 and 1839, only 13 houses existed in Fairview. Fairview was first incorporated as a borough in 1867 and chartered in 1874. By 1876, the population had grown to over 1,000 due to the oil boom which occurred in western Pennsylvania after oil was discovered on French Creek near Titusville, Pennsylvania. In 1874, C.D. Angell laid out additional streets and lots to the east of present-day Fairview. Due to a declining population going into the 1880s, Angell's expansion of Fairview was never realized. In 1880, after a series of misfortunes in the oil market, the population dropped to 333. On March 15, 1882, the Ralston and McQuade Bank on Main Street closed its doors with liabilities amounting to aroun…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fairview, 1883–1895

Passages that mention Fairview, cut from the printed page as they were published.

extending west from the line of Armstrong county, between the farms of Andrew Barnhart and the Widow Sylvus, to the line of Centre township, and that the original lines of the northern part of Donegal should be the northern, eastern and western lines of Fairview. The place of election for the new t…
History of Butler County, Pennsylvania.1895 · page 530Read the page →
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extending west from the line of Armstrong county, between the farms of Andrew Barnhart and the Widow Sylvus, to the line of Centre township, and that the original lines of the northern part of Donegal should be the northern, eastern and western lines of Fairview. The place of election for the new township was fixed at the house of William McCafferty in the village of Fairview, the voters of the old township of Donegal to meet at the house of Dennis O'Donnell, Sr.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
in the village of Fairview. They are members of St. Peter's Reformed church, of Fairview, in which he tills the office of elder. Ten children have been born to them, as follows : Mary E., wife of Samuel T. Dodd ; Jemima, wife of W. H.
History of Butler County, Pennsylvania.1895 · page IOO3Read the page →
Read the text

in the village of Fairview. They are members of St. Peter's Reformed church, of Fairview, in which he tills the office of elder. Ten children have been born to them, as follows : Mary E., wife of Samuel T. Dodd ; Jemima, wife of W. H.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
A schoolhouse, erected a short distance east ot where the Fairview Presbyterian Church now stands, was Fairview's first school building. It was built about 1825, aud had glass, instead of paper, for window lights.
History of Butler County, Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1883 · page 372Read the page →
Read the text

A schoolhouse, erected a short distance east ot where the Fairview Presbyterian Church now stands, was Fairview's first school building. It was built about 1825, aud had glass, instead of paper, for window lights.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
and Butler Academy'. He spent his summers in farming and his winters in teaching until Fort Sumter was fired upon when he left the position he then held as teacher in the town of Fairview and helped to raise a company of Butler County volunteers — Company H, old Thirteenth — and served with it unti…
History of Butler County, Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers1883Read the page →
Read the text

and Butler Academy'. He spent his summers in farming and his winters in teaching until Fort Sumter was fired upon when he left the position he then held as teacher in the town of Fairview and helped to raise a company of Butler County volunteers — Company H, old Thirteenth — and served with it until the end of the term. He afterward enlisted soldiers for other regiments, and himself enlisted for three years in Company

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

Fairview, decade by decade

Today4 recent
View of Main Street Fairview around 19002023View of Main Street Fairview around 1900View of Fairview 19002023View of Fairview 1900View of Fairview 18702023View of Fairview 1870Presbyterian church, Fairview Borough, Pennsylvania2015Presbyterian church, Fairview Borough, Pennsylvania
People over time

Fairview, census by census

010020030018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 333

Between 166 and 333 people in every census since 1880.

15 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Another post office, Baldwin, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Gone or out of use
Baldwin Post Officepost office
1cemetery inside Fairview
Fairview

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

Questions about Fairview’s history

What year was Fairview founded?

In 1830, according to Wikidata. Fairview’s post office opened in 1830, and the census of 1880 counted 333 people here.

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 (4), Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.