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History · Avoca

Avoca’s post office opened in 1857, and 20% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1905 on and the census since 1870.

1857first post office
0on the National Register
20%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Avoca began

When was Avoca founded?

1857

The Avoca post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 418 in 18702020 census: 553169 years
Founding year: the first Avoca post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Avoca’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 Avoca are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.On the map since 19053 editions of the USGS map, 1905 to 1983. Watch Avoca change.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Avoca’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Avoca’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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On the map

Avoca on the map, 1905 to 1983

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

Avoca on the 1905 USGS mapAvoca on the 1960 USGS mapAvoca on the 1983 USGS map1905Richland Center sheet · 1:125,000

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

The story so far

Avoca, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Avoca yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Avoca is a village in Iowa County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 553 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Madison Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is named after Avoca, County Wicklow in Ireland.

Its first post office opened in 1857. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 637 to 553 (-13%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Avoca in 1881

Passages that mention Avoca, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Passage from History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources...biographical sketches.. that mentions Avoca
History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources...biographical sketches..1881 · page 807Read the page →
Schools. — The educational privileges of the village of Avoca are not excelled by any other town in the county. School District No. 1 includes the village and a part of the country in the immediate vicinity. The first school was taught here in the winter of 1857, in a small board schoolhouse erecte…
History of Iowa County, Wisconsin, containing an account of its settlement, growth, development and resources...biographical sketches..1881 · page 830Read the page →
Read the text

Schools. — The educational privileges of the village of Avoca are not excelled by any other town in the county. School District No. 1 includes the village and a part of the country in the immediate vicinity. The first school was taught here in the winter of 1857, in a small board schoolhouse erected for the purpose. During 1858, the south wing part of the present building was erected. In 1877, an addition of equal size to the original structure was built, which completed the school building. Each wing is 28x50 feet, and two stories high. The cost of the entire structure is estimated at $5,000.

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.

By decade

Avoca, decade by decade

Today3 recent
Avoca 20240515 113740177C2024Avoca 20240515 113740177CWisconsin River Bridge at Lone Rock2014Wisconsin River Bridge at Lone RockWIMap-doton-Avoca2004WIMap-doton-Avoca
People over time

Avoca, census by census

010020030040050060070018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 637

Between 278 and 637 people in every census since 1870.

16 censuses, 1870–2020.

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Pulaski1 historic placenot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townOrion2 historic placesnot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Avoca’s history

What year was Avoca founded?

The Avoca post office opened in 1857, 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 (3), 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 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.