A history of Alliance,
since 1854
Postcards, papers and photographs of Alliance from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗Alliance was founded in 1854 by the merger of three smaller communities called Williamsport, formed in 1827, Freedom, formed in 1838, and Liberty, formed in 1850 to act as a station and support hub for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad. A fourth community, Mount Union, was added in 1888. Alliance was incorporated as a city in 1889.
There are two popular theories regarding the origin of the city's name. One holds that it was chosen because of the "alliance" of three small settlements into a larger entity. The other theory says the name reflects the fact that two major railroad lines, the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad and the Ohio and Pennsylvania Railroad, intersected at Alliance, once known as "The Crossing".
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Alliance’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewSourbeck house Alliance, Ohio, 1864: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Alliance
See all 45 →
Alliance, decade by decade
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Sourbeck house Alliance, Ohio (1864) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Historic places
National Register · via Wikidata
From the Library of Congress (5) and the National Register (7). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.