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Mooresburg, TN - SR 31 and Old US-11W intersectionPhoto: AppalachianCentrist · CC BY-SA 4.0
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History · Mooresburg

Mooresburg’s post office opened in 1814

Most of Mooresburg was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1993. Below: maps from 1935 on.

1814first post office
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: AppalachianCentrist · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How Mooresburg began

When was Mooresburg founded?

1814

The Mooresburg post office opened in 1814, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Red Bridge (1824) and Armstrong (1899), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 877212 years
Founding year: the first Mooresburg post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Mooresburg’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 Mooresburg are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Lost villages2 post offices opened and closed inside today’s Mooresburg.Deep rootsA post office since 1814: 212 years of Mooresburg.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mooresburg’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mooresburg’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
Places that used to be

Lost post offices and burying grounds

Mooresburg’s post office has been open since 1814. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.

Mooresburg
1814–today
Red Bridge
1824–1865
Armstrong
1899–1903
18101920today
7cemeteries and burying grounds inside Mooresburg
ArmstrongBassettCaldwellDicksonEtterIsenbergWilliams

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

Timeline

Mooresburg, 1814 to 1935

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1814Post officeThe Mooresburg post office opens
  3. 1824Post officeThe Red Bridge post office opens
  4. 1865Post officeThe Red Bridge post office closes
  5. 1899Post officeThe Armstrong post office opens
  6. 20th century
  7. 1903Post officeThe Armstrong post office closes
  8. 1906Born hereJim Mooney is born here
  9. 1935On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
The story

How Mooresburg came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Mooresburg.

Read it all →

Mooresburg was named for Major Hugh Moore, whose family settled in the area around 1800. Hugh had purchased over several thousands and laid out the setting for the town of Mooresburg.

Mooresburg has a post office with ZIP code 37811, which opened on March 4, 1814.

Following the impoundment of the Holston River by the Tennessee Valley Authority in the 1941, many property owners were relocated to make way for Cherokee Lake. In the 1970s, the community was impacted by the construction of U.S. Route 11W into a four-lane limited-access highway.

In 1977, 100 acres of Mooresburg was proposed to be inside the city limits of Bean Station during an incorporation vote. However voters in both Grainger and Hawkins counties rejected to incorporate.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

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

Mooresburg on the map, 1935 to 1976

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

Mooresburg on the 1935 USGS mapMooresburg on the 1940 USGS mapMooresburg on the 1961 USGS mapMooresburg on the 1976 USGS map1935Russellville 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 Mooresburg.

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Bean Station1 historic placeD

Questions about Mooresburg’s history

What year was Mooresburg founded?

The Mooresburg post office opened in 1814, 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.