Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Blue Ridge Tunnel. Below: 6 old photos and papers and maps from 1934 on.
The Afton post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Afton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Afton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Albemarle and Nelson counties in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is newly listed as a CDP in the 2020 census with a population of 313.
Its first post office opened in 1857.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveSketch of the road from Charlottesville to Afton, and from Browns Cove to Afton, Albemarl…
In the archivePiedmont and Rockfish Valleys
In the archivePiedmont and Rockfish Valleys
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archiveAPPROACH TO SOUTHEAST END OF TUNNEL. - Blue Ridge Railroad, Blue Ridge Tunnel, U.S. Route…4 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1960s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Afton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Afton.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Afton’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Afton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Afton post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Blue Ridge Tunnel (listed 2023).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (5), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
1968
1968
