Alderson dates to 1777, and 31% of its homes were built before 1940
5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 196 buildings. Below: 9 old photos and papers, maps from 1921 on, and the census since 1880.
Alderson is a community located along the Greenbrier River in Greenbrier County and Monroe County, incorporated in 1881.
In 1763, the nearby Muddy Creek settlements were destroyed by Shawnee Indians under Chief Cornstalk.
Alderson was originally settled in 1777 by "Elder" John Alderson, a frontier missionary for whom the town is named, who organized the first Baptist church in the Greenbrier Valley.
Alderson became an important livestock shipping point on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
Alderson is the location of the Federal Reformatory for Women, which opened in 1927 as the first federal prison for women.
Giving up this employment, he next worked at the railroad depot at Alderson, studying telegraphy at the same time. When at the age of twenty, he obtained the position of telegraph operator, and two years later was rewarded by promotion to the joint offices of station agent and telegraph operator.
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The reader will find in pioneer families of the county the history of first churches, and that of original enterprises also. The Gre'enbrier Baptist church in Alderson for example forme Un 1871 was three years before the Presbyterian church in Lewis ourg. It is given in full with Charter Members, in the history of the Alderson family.
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Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
By decade
Alderson, decade by decade
3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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.
In 1777, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Alderson’s post office opened in 1872, and the census of 1880 counted 478 people here.
What is on the National Register in Alderson?
5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Alexander McVeight Miller House (listed 1978, the first), 1 historic district, the Alderson Historic District, with 196 contributing buildings, and 1 structure. 202 historic buildings in all.
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 (8), the Library of Congress (1), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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 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.
1902
1902
1902
1907
1925
1933
