The Alum Creek post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name. Two smaller post offices, Rome (1881) and Priestley (1900), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 1,595116 years
How historic is Alum Creek?
C+
More historic than 38% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Alum Creek post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Alum Creek’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Alum Creek is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Alum Creek’s overall grade.
West Virginia towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical West Virginia town has 29.6 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Alum Creek’s 40.0 sits above most of its state (66% of West Virginia towns have fewer) while its 7 historic buildings outnumber those of 73% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±11.6 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Alum Creek’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town of Rome was founded at the junction of the Little and Big Coal rivers in the 1890s by the Childress family. Soon the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway built a line along the Coal River to transport coal from the coal fields in Boone and Logan counties into the hub in nearby town of St. Albans. The town grew and a town council was formed. The town officially changed its name to "Alum Creek" in 1910. A constable policed the town, although without a vehicle he relied on the generosity of locals to transport him from place to place. In 1922 a set of bridges was constructed across the Big and Little Coal rivers. It was also at approximately this time Union Carbide built Cliffside, a summer camp on the banks of the Coal River. The town flourished for the next half century with most of its residents working in either the mining industries or in chemicals. Two elementary schools were founded…
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Questions about Alum Creek’s history
What year was Alum Creek founded?
The Alum Creek post office opened in 1910, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Alum Creek rank for history?
Alum Creek is more historic than 38% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Alum Creek?
One place: the Holley Hills Estate (listed 1980).
How old are the homes in Alum Creek?
10% of Alum Creek’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±11.6 points), against a typical 13% for a West Virginia town; the median home was built in 1975.
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).
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
