Communities named for Olmste(a)ds
There are places named Olmstead and Olmsted for family members in America and Canada. This is an attempt to identify all of them and who they were named for. Some were named for Frederick Law Olmsted (FLO) but most for others. And many were station or “flag” stops on railroads identified in the Official Railway guides (1868-1969). Streets and roads are on another page on this site. Please email us of others so that we can add them to the list. We would like to know the location, maybe a little history or reason and who it was named for.
ALABAMA
Olmsted — station stop located east of Tuscaloosa on the Queen & Crescent Railroad.
ILLINOIS
Olmsted — station stop located on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad near Effinghamn, Illinois.
KENTUCKY
Olmstead — An Unincorporated community in Logan County, Kentucky. Olmstead was a station on the L & N railroad between Bowling Green, KY and Clarksville, TN that opened in 1860. It was named after a leader in the effort to build the railroad. Olmstead is also the site of an elementary and middle school though at one time was K-12, a one bay fire department, about twenty homes, and a cemetery. [There are 13 very small (28 or less burials on Find-a-Grave) cemeteries that had Olmstead as their address.] A post office (zip 42265) in Olmstead was established in 1862 has been in operation until recently (closed before 2016). At its peak,
Mary and I visited Olmstead in the summer of 2004. I chatted with the postmaster and then went across the road to the elementary school. The principal there said that the undocumented story of the place name was for a conductor on the L&N who lived in Russellville but often changed from a south bound to a north bound train at the unnamed rural stop so he could be home for dinner.
It had been known as “Hogan’s Station” and the settlement was known as Hogans or Hagan’s Corners, likely that the Hogan family had a store next to the railroad. The railroad wanted the name changed as there was another place in the state with the same/similar name. The conductor then named it for himself as other railroaders had been calling the stop “Olmstead” as he spent time there between trains.
The settlement may have also been called “Whistletown” as the L&N crossed both Olmstead Road and then (500′ later) Kenny Station Road requiring the sounding of the bell/whistle/horn for each.
In the 1900 census, there are C. A. Olmsted, engineer, and Wm. Woodale, conductor, rooming in Russellville, which is the Logan county seat and located on the L&N about ten miles north of Olmstead. WWS
MASSACHUSETTS
Olmsted Green, Boston (a residential community)
MINNESOTA
Olmsted County
NEW YORK
Olmstedville is a hamlet in the Town of Minerva in Essex County, New York, United States, in the Adirondack Park. Historically, it has been the largest settlement in the Town of Minerva. Today, it has its own post office, and Minerva Central School is located there. One of two stations of Minerva Fire & Rescue is also located in Olmstedville. The community still remains as the largest hamlet in the town.
NORTH CAROLINA
Olmstead Village, Pinehurst
Olmsted — Huntersville. A residential development by Pulte Homes, 14 miles north of Charlotte city center.
NORTH DAKOTA
Olmstead — station stop on the Great Northern Railroad
OHIO
North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls, Olmsted Township
The land that became North Olmsted was originally part of the Connecticut Reserve in the Northwest Territory. In 1805, Aaron Olmsted, a wealthy sea captain, completed purchase of a vast tract of land comprising present-day North Olmsted, Olmsted Falls and Olmsted Township from the Connecticut Land Company. Olmsted died one year later in 1806. In 1815, Elijah Stearns and his sons David Johnson and Alva traveled 500 miles from Vermont to Cuyahoga County to inspect the land they intended to purchase from the Olmsted estate. Elijah and Alva returned to Vermont to complete the purchase, but David remained behind, becoming North Olmsted’s first settler.
Earliest records show the area was called Kingston. In 1823 the people organized into a township called Lenox. In the 1820s, Charles Olmsted, Aaron’s son, donated his library of 500 books to Lennox Township on the condition that it change its name to Olmsted Township. The Trustees agreed and successfully petitioned Cuyahoga County to change the name of their township. The books, brought by oxcart from Connecticut, came to form the nucleus of a social library maintained by the Olmsted Library Company, officially incorporated in 1831. It was the first circulating library in the western reserve area. Today, the remaining books are on display at the North Olmsted branch library. [Extracted from north-olmsted.com]
PENNSYLVANIA
Olmsted — the first stop west of Coudersport on the Coudersport & Port Alleghany Railroad. Arthur George Olmsted, a lawyer in Coudersport was one of the organizers of the railroad. He had an estate on the west side of Coudersport, Potter County seat.
Olmsted’s Corners — in the Town of Ulysses, Potter County, a large farm of Daniel and Lucy (Scofield) Olmsted who had arrived from Delaware County, New York in the early 1800s.
Olmsted Air Force Base — now the Harrisburg International Airport. was named in honor of Lieutenant Robert Olmsted who lost his life in a balloon race in Belgium in 1923.
Robert Sandford Olmsted was born in Sheldon, Vermont, and in 1922 he was assigned to the Middletown Air Depot, the former Heinz pickle farm. He served in the engineering section, specifically the balloon and airship division, of the Army Air Service. During the 1923 Gordon Bennet International Balloon Races in Brussels, Belgium, Olmsted and his co-pilot John Shoptaw had their balloon struck by lightning resulting in the crashing of the balloon killed them both. On March 11, 1948, the Air Depot was renamed the Olmsted Air Force Base in memory and honor of Robert Olmsted.
The full history of the Air Base can be found at he Middletown Pennsylvania Library website [https://middletownpubliclib.org/olmsted-air-force-base].
Olmsville — in Delmar Twp., Tioga County at the intersection of West Branch Road (PA 3007) and Tiadaghton Hill Road. James and Lucinda (Rowe) Olmstead from Litchfield, Connecticut established a farm in this area. The West Branch Cemetery is located just about a mile north of the cross-road intersection. The small city of Wellsboro is located just east of the township on US 6.
This “non-existent” place was mentioned in the March 1942 obituary of Charles Olmstead.
This is not a “real” place. It was created by a company (greatcities.com) in Cambridge, Massachusetts that markets T-shirts with a place name, some imposed on a state map with a star about where the city is located. Appparently they just pick a place name off a map. I checked my area and found numerous ‘non-cities available. “Their site has 19 different designs (type fonts), all offered for any city name you want. Isn’t AI wonderful?
UTAH
Olmsted — station stop on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad
VERMONT
Olmstead Falls — Sometime after being burned out by the British in 1777, Timothy Olmstead (1767-1846) removed from Ridgefield, Connecticut to the Town of Franklin in northern Vermont. In the late 1700s, his son Smith settled along the Missisquoi River where he farmed and built a grist mill at the falls which became known as “Olmstead’s Falls.” With the ample water supply for power “Major” Smith also built a saw mill in 1792 capable of cutting 15,000 feet of lumber a day.
As early as 1609 mineral waters from local springs were identified. In the mid-1800s individuals started coming to the area for treatment in “water baths” and local spas were developed. It was at that time the settlement was renamed Sheldon Springs and between 1865 and 1870 the area became the leading water resort in the United States resulting in the construction of 11 hotels. Congress Hall, a four story hotel 123 by 96 feet opened for tourists in 1869. Water was drawn from nearby “Kimball Springs” for the two bath houses and a large bottling plant.
Additional information and a small map of the village can be found at the Sheldon Historical Society website. [https://sheldonvthistorical.org/our-town-history/sheldon-springs/]
At sometime in the three generations of descendants of Smith Olmstead the “a” was dropped out of the family name.
WEST VIRGINIA
Olmsted — a flag stop on the Norfolk & Western Railroad about a mile east of Welch
Website and contact information are found here.
and Olmste(a)d Family Association, 2017-2026
For corrections or additions please email us
