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History · Orme

Orme’s post office opened in 1902

Most of Orme was built recently: 4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1981. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1936 on, and the census since 1910.

1902first post office
0on the National Register
4%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Orme’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Orme began

When was Orme founded?

1902

The Orme post office opened in 1902, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Battle Creek Mines (1869), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

First census: 653 in 19102020 census: 87124 years
Founding year: the first Orme post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Orme’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 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Orme’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Orme’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 viewBattle-Creek-Mine-coal-vein: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Orme came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Orme.

Read it all →

Orme is rooted in a coal mining community known as Needmore, which was established in the early 1890s. Mining operations in the valley were slow to develop, however, due to the area's remoteness and lack of adequate means of transportation for the coal. In the late 1890s, Chattanooga businessman Frederick Gates purchased the Needmore mining operations, and began negotiating with the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway to build a branch line into the valley. After some hesitation, this railroad agreed to build the line in 1902.

Chapters2007 drought

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Orme, 1869 to 1965

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1869Post officeThe Battle Creek Mines post office opens
  3. 1876Post officeThe Battle Creek Mines post office closes
  4. 20th century
  5. 1902Post officeThe Orme post office opens
  6. 1913In the archiveBattle-Creek-Mine-coal-vein
  7. 1913Born hereJimmy Outlaw is born here
  8. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  9. 1965Post officeThe Orme post office closes
By decade

Orme, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s2 items
Battle-Creek-Mine-coal-vein1913Battle-Creek-Mine-coal-veinBattle-Creek-Mine-entrance-Orme-19121913Battle-Creek-Mine-entrance-Orme-1912
1920s–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
Today5 recent
Orme-welcome-sign-tn12016Orme-welcome-sign-tn1Orme-houses-tn12016Orme-houses-tn1Orme-community-building-tn12016Orme-community-building-tn1Orme-community-building-and-depot-tn12016Orme-community-building-and-depot-tn1Orme-Road-tn12016Orme-Road-tn1
On the map

Orme on the map, 1936 to 1974

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

Orme on the 1936 USGS mapOrme on the 1947 USGS mapOrme on the 1950 USGS mapOrme on the 1974 USGS map1936Orme 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 Orme.

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.

Battle-Creek-Mine-coal-vein
Retake this viewBattle-Creek-Mine-coal-vein, 1913

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Orme, census by census

0100200300400500600700192019401960198020002020Peak: 653

Between 87 and 653 people in every census since 1910.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices and places now gone

Orme had its own post office from 1902 to 1965. Another post office, Battle Creek Mines, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Battle Creek Mines
1869–1876
Orme
1902–1965
18601940today
Gone or out of use
Battle Creek MinesmineBattle Creek MinesmineOrme SchoolschoolPayne Number 1 Minemine

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

Questions about Orme’s history

What year was Orme founded?

The Orme post office opened in 1902, 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 Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.