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History · Prospect

Prospect’s post office opened in 1838, and 37% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1936 on.

1838first post office
0on the National Register
37%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Prospect began

When was Prospect founded?

1838

The Prospect post office opened in 1838, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Prospect Station (1866), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 121188 years
Founding year: the first Prospect post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Prospect’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 Prospect are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1838: 188 years of Prospect.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Prospect’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Prospect’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
Timeline

Prospect, 1838 to 1952

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1838Post officeThe Prospect post office opens
  3. 1866Post officeThe Prospect Station post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1936On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1952Post officeThe Prospect Station post office closes
The story so far

Prospect, in brief

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

Prospect is an unincorporated community in Giles County, Tennessee. The zip code is 38477. The southern agricultural pioneer and publisher Cully Cobb was born in Prospect in 1884.

Its first post office opened in 1838.

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

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

Prospect on the map, 1936 to 1950

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

Prospect on the 1936 USGS mapProspect on the 1948 USGS mapProspect on the 1950 USGS map1936Aspen Hill 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 Prospect.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, places now gone and burying grounds

Prospect’s post office has been open since 1838. Another post office, Prospect Station, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Prospect
1838–today
Prospect Station
1866–1952
18301930today
Gone or out of use
Prospect High Schoolschool
1cemetery inside Prospect
Prospect

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

Questions about Prospect’s history

What year was Prospect founded?

The Prospect post office opened in 1838, 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, 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.