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History · Boyce

Boyce’s post office opened in 1880, and 16% of its homes were built before 1940

4 places in town are on the National Register, among them the Saratoga, a National Historic Landmark, and a historic district with 154 buildings. Below: maps from 1942 on and the census since 1920.

1880first post office
4on the National Register
16%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Boyce began

When was Boyce founded?

1880

The Boyce post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 301 in 19202020 census: 749146 years
Founding year: the first Boyce post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Boyce’s past

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

A historic districtThe Boyce Historic District takes in 154 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Boyce are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.A National Historic Landmark4 places on the National Register, including Saratoga, a National Historic Landmark.
★ What stands out · On the National Register

4 listings protect 172 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.

places listed
4
National Historic Landmark
1
Saratoga
historic buildings protected
172
each building in a district counts
first listed
1970
Saratoga
Boyce Historic District
BuildingsDistricts★ landmark

Architectural styles listings

Late Victorian1
Queen Anne1
Second Gothic Revival1
Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals1
Classical Revival1
Late 19th and early 20th Century American Movements Bungalow1
★ Landmark
SaratogaBuilding
HuntingdonBuilding
ScalebyBuilding
Boyce Historic DistrictLate Victorian

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Help out

Start Boyce’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Boyce’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
The story so far

Boyce, in brief

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

Boyce is a small incorporated town in Clarke County, Virginia, United States. It is located in the DC-Maryland-Virginia metropolitan area. The population was 749 at the 2020 census, up from 589 at the 2010 census.

Its first post office opened in 1880. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 589 to 749 (+27%).

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

From the old history books

What they wrote about Boyce in 1914

Passages that mention Boyce, cut from the printed page as they were published.

THE Town of Boyce was incorporated by the Circuit Court for the County of Clarke on the 28th day of November, 1910, having at that date a population of 312.
History of Clarke County, Virginia and its connection with the war between the states1914 · page 46Read the page →
Read the text

THE Town of Boyce was incorporated by the Circuit Court for the County of Clarke on the 28th day of November, 1910, having at that date a population of 312.

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

Boyce, 1880 to 1973

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1880Post officeThe Boyce post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1942On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 1951Born hereJack Gilpin is born here
  6. 1973LandmarkSaratoga named a National Historic Landmark
By decade

Boyce, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Pastoral scene on a cattle spread below low-hanging clouds near Boyce, Virginia2019Pastoral scene on a cattle spread below low-hanging c…Pastoral scene on a cattle spread below low-hanging clouds near Boyce, Virginia2019Pastoral scene on a cattle spread below low-hanging c…GREENWAY HISTORIC DISTRICT2016GREENWAY HISTORIC DISTRICTGREENWAY HIST. DIST2016GREENWAY HIST. DISTGreenway Historic District Marker2013Greenway Historic District MarkerVAMap-doton-Boyce2005VAMap-doton-Boyce
On the map

Boyce on the map, 1942 to 1999

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

Boyce on the 1942 USGS mapBoyce on the 1966 USGS mapBoyce on the 1972 USGS mapBoyce on the 1999 USGS map1942Winchester sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Boyce.

People over time

Boyce, census by census

0200400600800192019401960198020002020749

Grew from 301 people in 1920 to 749 in 2020.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Boyce’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Boyce’s history

What year was Boyce founded?

The Boyce post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Boyce?

4 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Saratoga (a National Historic Landmark since 1973), and 1 historic district, the Boyce Historic District, with 154 contributing buildings. 172 historic buildings in all.

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 Wikimedia Commons (4), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (4), Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), 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.