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History · Esmont

Esmont’s post office opened in 1890, and 13% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listings are the Esmont and the Guthrie Hall. Below: 5 old photos and papers from 1910 on.

1890first post office
2on the National Register
13%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Esmont’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Esmont began

When was Esmont founded?

1890

The Esmont post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Green Mountain (1872), opened inside today’s town and later closed.

2020 census: 491136 years
Founding year: the first Esmont post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
The story

How Esmont came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Esmont.

Read it all →

The town was built from land purchased from the former Esmont plantation estate, built by Dr. Charles Cocke, and for which the town was named. Having rich soil, the town has historically been a farming community with a predominantly African American population. The area has been populated since the eighteenth century, though it did not acquire a post office until the later nineteenth century.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Esmont, 1872 to 1916

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1872Post officeThe Green Mountain post office opens
  3. 1873Post officeThe Green Mountain post office closes
  4. 1890Post officeThe Esmont post office opens
  5. 20th century
  6. 1910In the archiveTown of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground
  7. 1916Born hereFrank D. Peregory is born here
By decade

Esmont, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s3 items
Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground1910Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in for…Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground1910Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in for…Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground1910Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in for…
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
Date unknown2 to date
Benjamin Harris House, State Route 717Date?Benjamin Harris House, State Route 717Walter Coles House, State Route 627 at junction with Route 715Date?Walter Coles House, State Route 627 at junction with …
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Town of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground
Retake this viewTown of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad tracks in foreground, 1910

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Esmont’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

2 historic places in Esmont

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

places listed
2
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
6
each building in a district counts
first listed
1980
Esmont
EsmontGuthrie Hall
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Jeffersonian-Style1
Georgian Revival1
Paladin1
Rustic1
EsmontJeffersonian-Style
Guthrie HallGeorgian Revival

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

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds

Esmont’s post office has been open since 1890. Another post office, Green Mountain, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Green Mountain
1872–1873
Esmont
1890–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Porters
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Esmont
New HopeSaint Stephens

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Start Esmont’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Esmont’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo2 archive items have no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewTown of Esmont, Virginia, with railroad…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Esmont’s history

What year was Esmont founded?

The Esmont post office opened in 1890, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Esmont?

Two places: the Esmont (listed 1980) and the Guthrie Hall (1982).

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 (2), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.