Five men from the Hamilton County seat of Webster City moved 10 miles east to plat the town of Hawley in December 1857. The town was named after the Chief Engineer of the Dubuque and Pacific Railroad with the hope he would choose to have the rail line stop in the new town. The railroad did not extend to the area for ten years, and by that time John I. Blair was the Chief Engineer. When the Hawley investors refused to work with Blair, he platted his own town a mile to the north and named it Blairsburg.

The Blairsburg Post Office was officially established in August 1867. It has been in operation since and now resides just north of the town’s Main Street, adjacent to the restored turn-of-the-century Blairsburg Opera House. It is one of over 250 post offices in the state being reviewed for closure.