The story
Read it all →How Atkins came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Atkins.
The Old Stone Tavern was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Atkins
Atkins’ post office opened in 1895, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940
Its Register listing is the Old Stone Tavern. Below: maps from 1935 on and the census since 1980.
1895first post office
1on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
Quick answers
How Atkins began
When was Atkins founded?
1895
The Atkins post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Atkin's Tank (1871) and Wassum (1902), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 1,352 in 19802020 census: 1,121131 years
Founding year: the first Atkins post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Atkins’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Atkins’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Atkins’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Places that used to be
Lost post offices and burying grounds
Atkins’s post office has been open since 1895. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Atkin's Tank
Atkins
Wassum
18701950today
3cemeteries and burying grounds inside Atkins
AtkinsScottWassum
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Timeline
Atkins, 1871 to 1935
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1871Post officeThe Atkin's Tank post office opens
- 1895Post officeThe Atkin's Tank post office closes
- 1895Post officeThe Atkins post office opens
- 20th century
- 1902Post officeThe Wassum post office opens
- 1905Post officeThe Wassum post office closes
- 1935
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade
Atkins, decade by decade
2015
2008
2005On the map
Atkins on the map, 1935 to 1991
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Atkins. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1935Atkins sheet · 1:24,000U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Atkins.
On the National Register
1 historic place in Atkins
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
2
each building in a district counts
first listed
1982
Old Stone Tavern
Buildings
Architectural styles listings
Stone Vernacular1
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
People over time
Atkins, census by census
Between 1,130 and 1,352 people in every census since 1980.
3 censuses, 1980–2000.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Atkins’ Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Atkins
Nobody well known was born in Atkins itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
F
Fred AllisonAmerican physicist · b. 1882
Questions about Atkins’ history
What year was Atkins founded?
The Atkins post office opened in 1895, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Atkins?
One place: the Old Stone Tavern (listed 1982).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.