The story
Read it all →How Bay View came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Bay View.
Bay View was named and plotted in 1884 by William J. McKenna.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Bay View
Bay View’s post office opened in 1884
Most of Bay View was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1985. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1940 on, and the census since 2000.
1884first post office
0on the National Register
7%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
Quick answers
How Bay View began
When was Bay View founded?
1884
The Bay View post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 334 in 20002020 census: 812142 years
Founding year: the first Bay View post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
Timeline
Bay View, 1884 to 1954
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
By decade
Bay View, decade by decade
2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1900s–1910s6 items
1905Bay View Belles, 1905
1905Delia May Osborn and Bessie Benson in Osborn family f…
1910Bartie E. Osborn at family farm in Bay View, Washingt…
c. 1910Large group picnicking with many Osborn family member…
c. 1910May McKenna and Bartie Osborn at Bay View beach with …
c. 1910May McKenna and William McKenna at Bay View beach wit…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 albumOn the map
Bay View on the map, 1940 to 1998
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Bay View. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1940Mt Vernon sheet · 1:62,500U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Bay View.
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.
Retake this viewBay View Belles, 1905, 1905
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Bay View’s page.
Retake this view · +15People over time
Bay View, census by census
Grew from 334 people in 2000 to 812 in 2020.
3 censuses, 2000–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Bay View’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Bay View
Nobody well known was born in Bay View itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
Places that used to be
Lost post offices, old corners and burying grounds
Bay View had its own post office from 1884 to 1954.
Bay View
18801950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Bay View Mobile Home Park
1cemetery inside Bay View
Bay View
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Help out
Finish Bay View’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.Questions about Bay View’s history
What year was Bay View founded?
The Bay View post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (6), 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.