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History · Friendsville

Friendsville’s post office opened in 1850, and 24% of its homes were built before 1940

5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 9 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1936 on, and the census since 1880.

1850first post office
5on the National Register
24%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Friendsville’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Friendsville began

When was Friendsville founded?

1850

The Friendsville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 134 in 18802020 census: 896176 years
Founding year: the first Friendsville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Friendsville’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Landmarks on the Register5 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Friendsville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewFriendsville High School: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
On the National Register

5 historic places in Friendsville

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

places listed
5
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
13
each building in a district counts
first listed
1989
People's Bank of Friendsville
People's Bank of Friendsville, built 1915Samuel Frazier House, built 1795Craig, John J., Quarry Historic DistrictJohn Hackney House, built 1850John Hackney Mill Site
BuildingsDistrictsSites
People's Bank of FriendsvilleBuilt 1915
Samuel Frazier HouseBuilt 1795
All 5 listings
Craig, John J., Quarry Historic DistrictDistrict · listed 1989John Hackney HouseBuilding · listed 1989John Hackney Mill SiteSite · listed 1989

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

The story

How Friendsville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Friendsville.

Read it all →

Friendsville was founded by Quakers from New Garden, North Carolina, who settled in the area in the 1790s. The town is still home to a Friends Meetinghouse. In 1854, a group of British Quaker elders stayed here while promoting the abolitionist cause with American leaders. During this visit, abolitionist leader William Forster died and was buried here.

ChaptersFriendsville today

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Friendsville, 1795 to 1942

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

  1. 18th century
  2. 1795BuiltSamuel Frazier House is built
  3. 19th century
  4. 1850BuiltJohn Hackney House is built
  5. 1850Post officeThe Friendsville post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1915BuiltPeople's Bank of Friendsville is built
  8. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1942In the archiveFriendsville High School
By decade

Friendsville, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1940s1 item
Friendsville High School1942Friendsville High School
1950s–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
Today9 recent
DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 20152015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 2015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 20152015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 2015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 20152015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 2015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 20152015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 2015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 20152015DOE Science Bowl Tennessee 2015Friendsville-tennessee-marble-monument-tn12014Friendsville-tennessee-marble-monument-tn1Friendsville-bank-building-tn12014Friendsville-bank-building-tn1William-forster-grave-tn12008William-forster-grave-tn1Friendsville-tennessee22007Friendsville-tennessee2
On the map

Friendsville on the map, 1936 to 1984

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

Friendsville on the 1936 USGS mapFriendsville on the 1940 USGS mapFriendsville on the 1953 USGS mapFriendsville on the 1968 USGS mapFriendsville on the 1984 USGS map1936Concord 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 Friendsville.

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.

Friendsville High School
Retake this viewFriendsville High School, 1942

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Friendsville, census by census

02004006008001,00018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 913

Between 134 and 913 people in every census since 1880.

8 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Friendsville’s post office has been open since 1850.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Gooseneck
Gone or out of use
Friendsville High Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Friendsville
Friendsville

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Maryville24 historic placesA−

Questions about Friendsville’s history

What year was Friendsville founded?

The Friendsville post office opened in 1850, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Friendsville?

5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the People's Bank of Friendsville (listed 1989, the first), 1 historic district, the Craig, John J., Quarry Historic District, with 9 contributing buildings, and 1 site. 13 historic buildings in all.

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 (10), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (5), Wikipedia, 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.