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History · Ravensdale

Ravensdale’s post office opened in 1901

Most of Ravensdale was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 2000.

1901first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Ravensdale began

When was Ravensdale founded?

1901

The Ravensdale post office opened in 1901, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 816 in 20002020 census: 555125 years
Founding year: the first Ravensdale post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Ravensdale’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 Ravensdale are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,101 in 2010; 555 people lived here in 2020.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Ravensdale’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Ravensdale, census by census

02004006008001,0001,20020002020Peak: 1,101

Peaked at 1,101 in 2010; 555 people lived here in 2020.

3 censuses, 2000–2020.

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

The story

How Ravensdale came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Ravensdale.

Read it all →

Ravensdale was originally called "Leary", after the Leary Coal Company, in turn, named for John Leary, a Seattle pioneer. The latter name came from the flocks of ravens that fed on grain spilled from the boxcars on the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks that ran through the town. Underground coal mining commenced around 1899 by the Seattle and San Francisco Railway and Navigation Company, although coal had been mined in nearby Danville and Landsburg a few years earlier. The coal mines were later acquired by the Northwest Improvement Company (NWI), a subsidiary of Northern Pacific. In 1907, Ravensdale was a coal mining town with a population of about 1,000 residents, most of whom worked for the mining company. Ravensdale was officially incorporated on August 15, 1913. On November 16, 1915, at 1:25 p.m. an explosion occurred at the mine, killing 31 men, one of the worst coal mining accident…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Ravensdale, 1901 to 2010

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1901Post officeThe Ravensdale post office opens
  3. 1953On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1981Born hereBrandi Carlile is born here
  5. 21st century
  6. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 1,101
By decade

Ravensdale, decade by decade

Today1 recent
LR Sign2009LR Sign
On the map

Ravensdale on the map, 1953 to 1993

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

Ravensdale on the 1953 USGS mapRavensdale on the 1968 USGS mapRavensdale on the 1973 USGS mapRavensdale on the 1993 USGS map1953Cumberland 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 Ravensdale.

Questions about Ravensdale’s history

What year was Ravensdale founded?

The Ravensdale post office opened in 1901, 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 →
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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), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.