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Martins Creek, PA village, Nov. 2022Photo: 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 · Martins Creek

Martins Creek’s post office opened in 1810, and 39% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1891 on.

1810first post office
0on the National Register
39%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Martins Creek’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Martins Creek began

When was Martins Creek founded?

1810

The Martins Creek post office opened in 1810, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 664216 years
Founding year: the first Martins Creek post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Martins Creek’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 18917 editions of the USGS map, 1891 to 1994. Watch Martins Creek change.Old housesHalf of Martins Creek’s homes were built before 1948.Deep rootsA post office since 1810: 216 years of Martins Creek.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Martins Creek’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewMartins Creek PA Presby PHS336: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the map

Martins Creek on the map, 1891 to 1994

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

Martins Creek on the 1891 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1936 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1943 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1953 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1968 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1973 USGS mapMartins Creek on the 1994 USGS map1891Delaware Water Gap 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 Martins Creek.

The story

How Martins Creek came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Martins Creek.

Read it all →

In approximately 1730, a number of Scotch-Irish settled in a part of the town called Hunter's Settlement. Martin's Creek was first settled by Robert Lyle in 1741, with James Martin arriving around 1747. Martin operated a grist mill, and later served as a colonel in the American Revolution. In 1744, missionary David Brainerd began his work here with the Clistowackin band of Lenape Indians.

By the 1800s, the area had developed the name of Flatfield because of its level terrain. By the time of the Civil War, it was known as Martinsville, and later changed to Martin's Creek.

In 1939, exiled Russian prime minister Alexander Kerensky married Australian journalist Lydia Ellen Tritton in Martins Creek.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Martins Creek, 1848 to 1923

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1848Born hereJoseph Horace Shull is born here
  3. 1891On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 20th century
  5. 1923In the archiveMartins Creek PA Presby PHS336
By decade

Martins Creek, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s1 item
Martins Creek PA Presby PHS3361923Martins Creek PA Presby PHS336
1930s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown1 to date
Bangor & Portland RailwayDate?Bangor & Portland Railway
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.

Martins Creek PA Presby PHS336
Retake this viewMartins Creek PA Presby PHS336, 1923

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

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Martins Creek’s history

What year was Martins Creek founded?

The Martins Creek post office opened in 1810, 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 →
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 (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people and U.S. Geological Survey historical maps. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.