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History · McDonald

McDonald’s post office opened in 1860, and 47% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1935 on.

1860first post office
0on the National Register
47%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: Harrison Keely · CC BY 4.0
Quick answers

How McDonald began

When was McDonald founded?

1860

The McDonald post office opened in 1860, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 586166 years
Founding year: the first McDonald post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about McDonald’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 McDonald are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of McDonald’s homes were built before 1956.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start McDonald’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how McDonald’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
The story

How McDonald came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of McDonald.

Read it all →

The McDonald community was established circa 1850. The origin of its name is unclear; the community may have been named for a Scottish trader, a railroad builder, or the mother of a resident. In 1887, Goodspeed's History of Tennessee described McDonald's Station as a "small village on the East Tennessee, Virginia & Georgia Railroad." Many mineral springs are located in the McDonald area, and the community had many popular resorts from the 1880s to the 1930s.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

McDonald, 1860 to 1935

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1860Post officeThe Mc Donald post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1932Born hereSummerfield Johnston, Jr. is born here
  5. 1935On 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

McDonald on the map, 1935 to 1976

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

McDonald on the 1935 USGS mapMcDonald on the 1940 USGS mapMcDonald on the 1967 USGS mapMcDonald on the 1976 USGS map1935Mc Donald 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 McDonald.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

South ClevelandIts storyD

Questions about McDonald’s history

What year was McDonald founded?

The McDonald post office opened in 1860, 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 Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.