The Bland post office opened in 1894, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Crab Orchard (1851) and Bland Courthouse (1868), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 383132 years
Founding year: the first Bland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
What stands out about Bland’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bland’s post office has been open since 1894. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
Crab Orchard
1851–1868
Bland Courthouse
1868–1894
Bland
1894–today
18501940today
1cemetery inside Bland
Temple Hill
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Bland, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Bland yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Bland is a census-designated place (CDP) in and the county seat of Bland County, Virginia, United States. Bland was originally known as Bland Court House. The population as of the 2020 Census was 312.
Its first post office opened in 1894. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 409 to 383 (-6%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Bland in 1826
Passages that mention Bland, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Collections for a history of the ancient family of Bland ..1826 · page 283Read the page →
Read the text
— who, to the regret of his friends, left his Paternal acres, and settled at Randall's Park, in the Parish of Leatherhead, in Surrey, — obtained His Majesty's Licence, that he and his issue might assume and take the Surname of Bland, instead of that of Crumpe, and also bear the Arms of Bland, in compliance with the earnest wish and desire of his Mother, out of respect and regard to the Memory of her late deceased Father, Nathaniel Bland, LL.D., — And Arms for Bland
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Collections for a history of the ancient family of Bland ..1826 · page 90Read the page →
Read the text
Lancelot Bland, by his Will dated the 20th of July, 1648, and proved on the 29th of AprU, 1650, directs his body to be buried in the Parish Church of Orton, — gives to his son Henry Bland, and his heirs, all his freehold lands and customary lands, &c., in Orton alias Overton, and in Orton Fields, — entrusts the tuition and education of his son Henry Bland to his Father-in-law, John Taylor, and his brother Thomas Bland, and to liis brothers-in-law James Taylor and Ro-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Bland, 1851 to 1956
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 (2), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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