Catlett’s post office opened in 1853, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
Most of Catlett was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 119 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1946 on, and old-book passages.
Due to the creation of a railroad system that was essential to travel and supply in Virginia, many small towns including Catlett sprang up as stops. During its heyday, Catlett was a busy telegraph outpost and mail stop along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. The land that the town was built on had originally been granted to John Catlett in 1715 but was not named for him at first. The post office and town were first known as Colvin's Station after the Colvin family, but over the years this was changed to Catlett Station and then to simply Catlett.
Passages that mention Catlett, cut from the printed page as they were published.
A history of two Virginia families transplanted from county Kent, England. Thomas Baytop, Tenterden, 1638, and John Catlett, Sittingbourne, 16221918 · page 37Read the page →
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Benjamin Temple. Hi 1773 he advertised a horse taken from John Catlett's pasture in King and Queen Co., near Todd's Bridge, in the Virginia Gazette. Again, in same paper, John Catlett, of King William, in June, 1779, has a stray horse to be delivered either to himself or to Mr. Richard Eggleston, in James City Co. John Catlett, of King William, and Christopher Tompkins made, in 1787, commissioHcrs to estimate damage done by the British at St. David's Point. Virginia
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A history of two Virginia families transplanted from county Kent, England. Thomas Baytop, Tenterden, 1638, and John Catlett, Sittingbourne, 16221918 · page 26Read the page →
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Alice, Xancy and George. Xames wife Mary and two sons, Kemp and Thomas, and James Pendleton executors. There is a deed in Culpepper Records, dated 4th of January, 1770, from Jonathan Catlett, his brother, and wife Elizabeth, of King William co., to Lawrence Catlett, his part of 340 acres of 1,528 acres left by his fatlier. John Catlett, d. 1744, to his sons, Lawrence, George, Jonathan and Thomas. Witnesses to deed in King William co.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Catlett, 1853 to 1946
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 (6), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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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