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History · Cottage Grove

Cottage Grove’s post office opened in 1854, and 23% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1985 on and the census since 1880.

1854first post office
0on the National Register
23%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Cottage Grove began

When was Cottage Grove founded?

1854

The Cottage Grove post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 172 in 18802020 census: 66172 years
Founding year: the first Cottage Grove post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Cottage Grove’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 Cottage Grove are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 215 in 1910; 66 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Cottage Grove’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Cottage Grove’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
People over time

Cottage Grove, census by census

010020018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 215

Peaked at 215 in 1910; 66 people lived here in 2020.

13 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

The story so far

Cottage Grove, in brief

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

Cottage Grove is a town in Henry County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 census, Cottage Grove had a population of 66. Cottage Grove is currently the smallest town in Tennessee.

Its first post office opened in 1854. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 88 to 66 (-25%).

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

Timeline

Cottage Grove, 1854 to 1985

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1854Post officeThe Cottage Grove post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1910CensusPopulation peaks at 215
  5. 1985On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
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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On the map

Cottage Grove on the map in 1985

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cottage Grove.

Cottage Grove on the 1985 USGS map1985Cottage Grove 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 Cottage Grove.

Famous people

Famous people close to Cottage Grove

Nobody well known was born in Cottage Grove itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Dixie CarterAmerican actress · b. 1939
Cherry JonesAmerican actress · b. 1956
Hayden WhiteAmerican historian · b. 1928
Leigh-Allyn BakerAmerican actress · b. 1972
M
Molly SimsAmerican actress · b. 1973
Jackie DeShannonAmerican singer-songwriter (b. 1941) · b. 1941
Places that used to be

Places now gone and burying grounds

Cottage Grove’s post office has been open since 1854.

Gone or out of use
Cottage Grove High Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Cottage Grove
Cottage Grove

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

Questions about Cottage Grove’s history

What year was Cottage Grove founded?

The Cottage Grove post office opened in 1854, 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 U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.