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History · Madera

Madera’s post office opened in 1861, and 57% of its homes were built before 1940

1861first post office
0on the National Register
57%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: 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
Quick answers

How Madera began

When was Madera founded?

1861

The Madera post office opened in 1861, the earliest record of the town by name.

165 years
Founding year: the first Madera post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Madera’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 Madera are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Madera’s homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Madera’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Madera’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 so far

Madera, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Madera yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Madera is an unincorporated community in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, United States. The community is located along Pennsylvania Route 53, 4.4 miles (7.1 km) west of Houtzdale. Madera has a post office with ZIP code 16661, which opened on January 31, 1861. It is located within the Moshannon Valley School District which was ranked number two among High Schools located within Clearfield County.

Its first post office opened in 1861.

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

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.
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Questions about Madera’s history

What year was Madera founded?

The Madera post office opened in 1861, 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 Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.