Founding year: the first Dunbar post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Dunbar’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Dunbar is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #47 of 61 in West Virginia. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Dunbar’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 Dunbar’s 1.4 sits near the middle of its state (36% of West Virginia towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.6 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 Dunbar’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Dunbar was incorporated on April 19, 1921, by an Act of the West Virginia Legislature. Dunbar is on land that was originally occupied by Native Americans with 11 mounds identified in the residential areas. The land was granted to George Washington for his military service and was named for Mary Dunbar after she inherited the land from Washington, although other sources say it was named for Dunbar Baines, a prominent area banker.
Dunbar was a farming community until industries began to evolve in the city with the opening of glass and bottling plants in 1912. The Gravely Plow was invented in Dunbar in 1916.
Passages that mention Dunbar, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Charleston and Kanawha County, West Virginia1911 · page 627Read the page →
Read the text
which had its first commercial development some ten years ago. He is the prime mover in the developing of the suburban town of Dunbar and is making it one of the chief manufacturing centers of this state and in doing this plans to supply the manufacturers with cheap fuel and to make Charleston the Pittsburg of the South. He is presi-
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
Dunbar, 1880 to 1991
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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.
The Dunbar post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Dunbar rank for history?
Dunbar is more historic than 27% of U.S. towns, #47 of 61 in West Virginia. 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 Dunbar?
One place: the Dutch Hollow Wine Cellars (listed 1970).
How old are the homes in Dunbar?
12% of Dunbar’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.6 points), against a typical 13% for a West Virginia town; the median home was built in 1955.
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 Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (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), 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.
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