Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1908 on, and the census since 1910.
The Damascus post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Mock's Mills (1856), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 1,726 in 1950; 788 people lived here in 2020.
12 censuses, 1910–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Damascus’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Damascus.
On January 27, 2025, Vice President JD Vance and Governor Glenn Youngkin visited Damascus to meet with survivors of Hurricane Helene and review the recovery progress.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archivePorch of the Country Gifts & Antiques shop on the Appalachian TrailOne decade in the archive so far: the 1980s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
2026Kaine Receives Update on Reconstruction of the Damasc…
2024Hurricane Helene Damage
2011Early Autumn in
2008Hungry after hiking, burrowing, and being soaked
2008Hungry after hiking, burrowing, and being soaked
2007Downtowndamascus
2007Damascusdowntown
2006Traildays06
2006DamascusWelcomeMural
2006DamascusDowntownwithBlazeonPole
2006Creeper Trail BridgeEvery edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Damascus. 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 Damascus.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1908Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Damascus’ page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Damascus itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Damascus’s post office has been open since 1890. Another post office, Mock's Mills, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
The Damascus post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 (12), the Library of Congress (4), Wikipedia, 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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