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History · Charleston

Charleston’s post office opened in 1840, and 15% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Henegar House, the Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Cleveland to Charleston Concrete Highway. Below: maps from 1935 on and the census since 1880.

1840first post office
3on the National Register
15%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Charleston began

When was Charleston founded?

1840

The Charleston post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 359 in 18802020 census: 664186 years
Founding year: the first Charleston post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Charleston’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 Charleston are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1840: 186 years of Charleston.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Charleston’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Timeline

Charleston, 1840 to 1935

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1840Post officeThe Charleston post office opens
  3. 1849BuiltHenegar House is built
  4. 20th century
  5. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Charleston came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Charleston.

Read it all →

Bradley County was home to the Cherokee long before European settlers arrived. What is now Charleston began around 1808 when Major John Walker Sr., a part-Cherokee grandson of Nancy Ward, established a ferry across the Hiwassee River between present-day Charleston and Calhoun. As a result, the community was initially known as "Walker's Ferry." The Hiwassee Purchase of 1819 resulted in the cession of Cherokee lands between the Hiwassee and Little Tennessee rivers to the Federal Government, and as a result, the Hiwassee River became the boundary between the Cherokee Nation and the United States, where it remained until the Cherokee removal in 1838. In 1821, the Cherokee Agency— the official liaison between the U.S. government and the Cherokee Nation— was moved to the location of present-day Charleston. The agent to the Cherokees was first Colonel Return J. Meigs Sr., who had served in th…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Charleston in 1866

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

Charleston is in the eastern part of the county upon the Hiwassee, and at the point where the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad crosses that river. It contains about four hundred inhabitants.
History of the rebellion in Bradley County, East Tennessee1866 · page 14Read the page →
Read the text

Charleston is in the eastern part of the county upon the Hiwassee, and at the point where the East Tennessee and Georgia Railroad crosses that river. It contains about four hundred inhabitants.

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

Charleston, decade by decade

Today4 recent
A dilapidated service road leading to the Guard Station in2014A dilapidated service road leading to the Guard Stati…A chain link fence blocks the road leading to the Guard Station in2014A chain link fence blocks the road leading to the Gua…A wayside at the Henegar House in2012A wayside at the Henegar House inCharleston-tennessee-sign12007Charleston-tennessee-sign1
On the map

Charleston on the map, 1935 to 1980

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

Charleston on the 1935 USGS mapCharleston on the 1942 USGS mapCharleston on the 1965 USGS mapCharleston on the 1980 USGS map1935Charleston 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 Charleston.

On the National Register

3 historic places in Charleston

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

places listed
3
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
3
each building in a district counts
first listed
1976
Henegar House
Henegar House, built 1849Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchCleveland to Charleston Concrete Highway
BuildingsStructures
Henegar HouseBuilt 1849
Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian ChurchBuilding
All 3 listings
Cleveland to Charleston Concrete HighwayStructure · listed 2008

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

People over time

Charleston, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 792

Between 359 and 792 people in every census since 1880.

9 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

CalhounIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Charleston’s history

What year was Charleston founded?

The Charleston post office opened in 1840, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Charleston?

Three places: the Henegar House (listed 1976), the Charleston Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1984) and the Cleveland to Charleston Concrete Highway (2008).

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 (4), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (3), 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.