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View from Loomis WAPhoto: A. Balet · CC BY 3.0
–Not graded
History · Loomis

Loomis’ post office opened in 1889, and 32% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1890 on.

1889first post office
0on the National Register
32%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
From Loomis’ archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Loomis began

When was Loomis founded?

1889

The Loomis post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 161137 years
Founding year: the first Loomis post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Loomis’ past

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

★ What stands out · Help out

Start Loomis’s collection

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

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

How Loomis came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Loomis.

Read it all →

A post office called Loomis has been in operation since 1889. The community was named after J. A. Loomis, a local storekeeper.

On November 3, 1901, J. M. Haggerty was tarred and feathered in Loomis. He made comments to The Spokesman-Review about the lack of success of the Palmer Mountain Tunnel Company. The comments were resented and a mob was waiting for him when he stepped off the stage. During an impromptu mass meeting, "Suddenly a dozen men grabbed Haggerty, and before half the crowd knew what was happening a bucket of tar and pillows were produced." After half an hour of being paraded through the street covered in tar and feathers, he was released.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Loomis, 1889 to 1920

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1889Post officeThe Loomis post office opens
  3. 1890In the archivePack train for the mines
  4. 20th century
  5. 1920In the archiveCattle round-up near Loomis, September 1920
By decade

Loomis, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1890s to the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s–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
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.

Pack train for the mines
Retake this viewPack train for the mines, 1890

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

Retake this view · +15
Famous people

Famous people close to Loomis

Nobody well known was born in Loomis itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →

Questions about Loomis’ history

What year was Loomis founded?

The Loomis post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 (1), the Library of Congress (1), 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.