The story
Read it all →How Alma came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Alma.
Alma was named in commemoration of the 1854 Battle of the Alma, in the Crimean War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Alma
Alma’s post office opened in 1856, and 35% of its homes were built before 1940
11 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 121 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1889 on, and the census since 1870.
1856first post office
11on the National Register
35%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
2famous people
Quick answers
How Alma began
When was Alma founded?
1856
The Alma post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 565 in 18702020 census: 716170 years
Founding year: the first Alma post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Alma’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
A historic districtThe Alma Historic District takes in 121 historic buildings.A history waiting to be writtenOnly 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Boom and bustPeaked at 1,428 in 1890; 716 people lived here in 2020.Landmarks on the Register11 places on the National Register.
★ What stands out · On the National Register
11 listings protect 133 historic buildings
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
places listed
11
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
133
each building in a district counts
first listed
1979
Frederick Laue House
BuildingsDistricts
Architectural styles listings
Vernacular2
High Victorian Italianate1
Federal1
Greek Revival1
Queen Anne1
Frederick Laue HouseHigh Victorian Italianate
Tester and Polin General Merchandise StoreVernacular
Sherman HouseVernacular · Built 1866
Alma Historic DistrictDistrict
Burlington HotelBuilt 1891
Dr. J. T. Tenny HouseQueen Anne · Built 1904
Frederick Laue Jr. HouseBuilt 1896
Jacob Berni HouseBuilding
All 11 listings
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Help out
Start Alma’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Alma’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.People over time
Alma, census by census
Peaked at 1,428 in 1890; 716 people lived here in 2020.
16 censuses, 1870–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Alma’s Wikipedia page.
From the old history books
What they wrote about Alma in 1888
Passages that mention Alma, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin1888 · page 618Read the page →
Read the text
The parts in Range 11 formerly belonged to the Town of Waumandee, and were added to Alma on account of their position, which demanded an outlet through adjoining parts of Alma. But with the exception of these, the Town of Alma ran from the East line of T. 22, R. 12 to the Mississippi and included all of T. 21, R. 'l3, at first and much more than now even at the time of the incorporation of the village in 1868. The surface of the town is very much interrupted and consists of the Beef River Bottoms and the
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Buffalo County, Wisconsin1888 · page 344Read the page →
Read the text
given by that of the road leading from the bluff east of Fountain City to the lower part of the town or village. This road was also laid out by Mr. Davis in 1871. One from the upper pftrt of the village followed 1872. In 1876 the village of Alma laid out a road of the same kind from Laue's house to the bluff, joining the old road at the boundary line between Alma and Belvidere.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Alma, 1856 to 1955
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
- 19th century
- 1856Post officeThe Alma post office opens
- 1866BuiltSherman House is built
- 1869Born hereJames Arthur Mathieu is born here
- 1890CensusPopulation peaks at 1,428
- 1891BuiltBurlington Hotel is built
- 1896BuiltFrederick Laue Jr. House is built
- 20th century
- 1904BuiltDr. J. T. Tenny House is built
- 1932
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey - 1955Born hereBruce Hunter is born here
By decade
Alma, decade by decade
Date unknown1 to date
Date?On the map
Alma on the map, 1932 to 1974
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Alma. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1932Alma 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 Alma.
Every building
Alma, building by building, 1889–1910
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1889Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 viewUpper Mississippi River 9-Foot Channel, Lock & Dam No. 4
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Alma’s page.
Retake this view · +15Famous people
See all →2 famous people were born in Alma
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Alma’s post office has been open since 1856.
Gone or out of use
Iron Creek Schoolschool
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Stories next door
History across the town line
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
Questions about Alma’s history
What year was Alma founded?
The Alma post office opened in 1856, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Alma?
11 listings: 10 buildings, among them the Frederick Laue House (listed 1979, the first), and 1 historic district, the Alma Historic District, with 121 contributing buildings. 133 historic buildings in all.
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 the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (10), the National Register of Historic Places (11), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.