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History · Painter

Painter’s post office opened in 1885, and 27% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Central High School. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1960.

1885first post office
1on the National Register
27%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Painter’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Painter began

When was Painter founded?

1885

The Painter post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 349 in 19602020 census: 272141 years
Founding year: the first Painter post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Painter’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Painter’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewThunder Castle, State Route 607 vicinity: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Painter came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Painter.

Read it all →

From its earliest settlement, most villages and towns on the Eastern Shore of Virginia were located near the coasts at navigable ports where crops or livestock could be transported by boat. The coming of the New York, Pennsylvania, and Norfolk Railroad in the 1880s initiated a shift in population and commerce to the center of the shore and created the need for new towns, including the town of Painter.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Painter, decade by decade

Date unknown1 to date
Thunder Castle, State Route 607 vicinityDate?Thunder Castle, State Route 607 vicinity
Today7 recent
Dusk in2018Dusk inDerelict building in Painter, dusk2018Derelict building in Painter, duskCommercial area of Painter at dusk2018Commercial area of Painter at dusk2017-07-12 09 57 48 View east along Virginia State Route 182 (Edmunds Street) at U.S. Route 13 (Lankford Highway) in20172017-07-12 09 57 48 View east along Virginia State Ro…Painter Garrisons United Methodist Church2016Painter Garrisons United Methodist ChurchUS Route 13 - Virginia2013US Route 13 - VirginiaUS Route 13 092505 9782007US Route 13 092505 978
On the map

Painter on the map, 1943 to 1992

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

Painter on the 1943 USGS mapPainter on the 1968 USGS mapPainter on the 1977 USGS mapPainter on the 1992 USGS map1943Exmore sheet · 1:24,000

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

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.

Thunder Castle, State Route 607 vicinity
Retake this viewThunder Castle, State Route 607 vicinity

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

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Painter

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
4
each building in a district counts
first listed
2010
Central High School
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Art Deco1
Central High SchoolArt Deco

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

People over time

Painter, census by census

01002003004001960198020002020Peak: 363

Between 229 and 363 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Questions about Painter’s history

What year was Painter founded?

The Painter post office opened in 1885, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Painter?

One place: the Central High School (listed 2010).

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 (7), the Library of Congress (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, 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.