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History · Frederick

Frederick’s post office opened in 1882, and 47% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandise Store. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1893 on, and the census since 1890.

1882first post office
1on the National Register
47%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Frederick’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Frederick began

When was Frederick founded?

1882

The Frederick post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 281 in 18902020 census: 215144 years
Founding year: the first Frederick post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Frederick’s past

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

Boom and bustPeaked at 461 in 1930; 215 people lived here in 2020.Mapped building by building5 fire insurance maps, 1893 to 1921, drew every building in Frederick.Old housesHalf of Frederick’s homes were built before 1953.
★ What stands out · People over time

Frederick, census by census

01002003004005001900192019401960198020002020Peak: 461

Peaked at 461 in 1930; 215 people lived here in 2020.

14 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

Every building

Frederick, building by building, 1893–1921

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.

Frederick fire insurance map, 1893, sheet 11893Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

The story

How Frederick came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Frederick.

Read it all →

Frederick was a railway town platted and sold to pioneers by the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, which completed track into it on September 12, 1881. Its grid of blocks was aligned by compass, with numbered avenues running north–south, and numbered streets running east–west. Main Street and Railway Avenue intersect at the grid's core. Incorporated on June 21, 1882, Frederick was named after the railroad's Finnish immigration agent and sales clerk—Kustaa "Frederick" Bergstadius.

On July 2, 1921, a tornado swept through the downtown and "practically every building in the town was demolished", but only one resident was killed, after his home was torn from its foundation while he was trying to get his family into the storm cellar.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Frederick, 1882 to 1987

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1882Post officeThe Frederick post office opens
  3. 1883In the archiveBird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 1883
  4. 20th century
  5. 1911In the archiveFrederick S. Dak
  6. 1930CensusPopulation peaks at 461
  7. 1953On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1987In the archiveCity jail
By decade

Frederick, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1880s–1910s3 items
Bird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 18831883Bird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 1883Frederick SD 18831883Frederick SD 1883Frederick S. Dak1911Frederick S. Dak
1920s–1970snothing 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
1980s2 items
City jail1987City jailFarm stand1987Farm stand
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
Today2 recent
Frederick, South Dakota, N side Main St E. of 3rd Ave2017Frederick, South Dakota, N side Main St E. of 3rd AveSDMap-doton-Frederick2004SDMap-doton-Frederick
On the map

Frederick on the map, 1953 to 1985

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

Frederick on the 1953 USGS mapFrederick on the 1985 USGS map1953Frederick sheet · 1:24,000

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

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.

Bird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 1883
Retake this viewBird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 1883, 1883

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Frederick

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
1985
Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandi…
Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandise Store
Buildings
Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandise StoreBuilding

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

Help out

Finish Frederick’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewBird's eye view of Frederick, Dak. 1883: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Frederick’s history

What year was Frederick founded?

The Frederick post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Frederick?

One place: the Martilla-Pettingel and Gorder General Merchandise Store (listed 1985).

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 (6), the Library of Congress (1), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.