Most of Dooms was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1934 on, and the census since 2000.
Founding year: the first Dooms post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Dooms’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dooms is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Dooms’ overall grade.
Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Virginia town has 3.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Dooms’ 0.0 sits below most of its state (17% of Virginia towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±2.2 points) is firm at this size. The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Dooms’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Dooms yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Dooms is a census-designated place (CDP) in Augusta County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, Dooms had a population of 1,279. It is part of the Staunton–Waynesboro Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Its first post office opened in 1885. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,327 to 1,279 (-4%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Dooms, 1885 to 1934
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Dooms post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Dooms rank for history?
Dooms is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
How old are the homes in Dooms?
0.0% of Dooms’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.2 points), against a typical 1.9% for a Virginia town; the median home was built in 1984.
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).
From the Library of Congress (1), 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.
Date?
