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History · Troutville

Troutville’s post office opened in 1868, and 17% of its homes were built before 1940

Its Register listing is the Thomas D. Kinzie House. Its Register listing is the Thomas D. Kinzie House. Below: maps from 1929 on and the census since 1960.

1868first post office
1on the National Register
17%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Troutville began

When was Troutville founded?

1868

The Troutville post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 524 in 19602020 census: 458158 years
Founding year: the first Troutville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Troutville’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Troutville are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of Troutville’s homes were built before 1963.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Troutville’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Troutville came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Troutville.

Read it all →

The railroad reached this location in 1881, and a station was built, but the area had no name. As three nearby houses were occupied by the brothers John, Jim, and Jorge Trout, the area was called Troutsville. It became an important shipping center in the 1890s. In 1895, Troutsville was a thriving town with an active shipping point, farming, canneries, packing houses and factories. The name of the town was later changed to Troutville. The town was chartered on June 4, 1956.

The Thomas D. Kinzie House and Bryan McDonald Jr. House are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Troutville, decade by decade

Today3 recent
MillCreekBaptistTroutvilleVirginia2008MillCreekBaptistTroutvilleVirginiaBRYAN MCDONALD JR HOUSE2008BRYAN MCDONALD JR HOUSEAppalachianTrailTroutvilleVirginia2008AppalachianTrailTroutvilleVirginia
On the map

Troutville on the map, 1929 to 1933

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

Troutville on the 1929 USGS mapTroutville on the 1933 USGS map1929Roanoke sheet · 1:62,500

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

On the National Register

1 historic place in Troutville

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

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
6
each building in a district counts
first listed
2002
Thomas D. Kinzie House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Queen Anne1
Thomas D. Kinzie HouseQueen Anne

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

People over time

Troutville, census by census

01002003004005001960198020002020Peak: 524

Between 431 and 524 people in every census since 1960.

7 censuses, 1960–2020.

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

Questions about Troutville’s history

What year was Troutville founded?

The Troutville post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Troutville?

One place: the Thomas D. Kinzie House (listed 2002).

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 (3), 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.