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History · Fruitvale

Fruitvale’s post office opened in 1903, and 16% of its homes were built before 1940

1903first post office
0on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
Quick answers

How Fruitvale began

When was Fruitvale founded?

1903

The Fruitvale post office opened in 1903, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 476123 years
Founding year: the first Fruitvale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Fruitvale’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fruitvale’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
The story so far

Fruitvale, in brief

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

Fruitvale is a small city in Van Zandt County, Texas, United States. The population was 408 at the 2010 census, and 476 as of 2020. The town draws its name from its location in the center of the historic fruit-growing district of the Sabine River valley in northeastern Van Zandt County. Its name was originally Bolen Switch, but it was changed around 1901 after a petition of local fruit growers, and a post office was established in 1903. On April 29, 2017, an EF-3 tornado struck the town at EF-2 intensity, causing major damage and several injuries. Fruitvale Independent School District serves the town for head start to 12th grade.

Its first post office opened in 1903. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 408 to 476 (+17%).

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.

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Famous people

Famous people close to Fruitvale

Nobody well known was born in Fruitvale itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

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Places that used to be

Places now gone

Fruitvale’s post office has been open since 1903.

Gone or out of use
Fruitvale Oil Fieldoilfield

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

Questions about Fruitvale’s history

What year was Fruitvale founded?

The Fruitvale post office opened in 1903, 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 →
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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 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.