Originally, Maisons-Alfort was called simply Maisons. The name Maisons comes from Medieval LatinMansiones, meaning "the houses".
At the creation of the commune during the French Revolution, the name of the hamlet of Alfort was joined with the name of Maisons. The name Alfort comes from the manor built there by Peter of Aigueblanche, Bishop of Hereford (England), in the middle of the 13th century. The name of this Manor of Hereford was corrupted into Harefort, then Hallefort, and eventually Alfort. The National Veterinary School of Alfort was settled several centuries later in the manor and its estate.
History
On 1 April 1885, 40% of the territory of Maisons-Alfort was detached and became the commune of Alfortville.
In 1905, Buffalo Bill stayed two months in Maisons-Alfort while his famous Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show performed in Paris.
September 1944 explosion
At 8.39am on 8 September 1944 a V-2 rocket landed and killed six people at Charentonneau,[3] launched from Petites-Tailles, near Houffalize, in south-east Belgium by Lehr und Versuchsbatterie 444.[4] This was the first destruction caused by a V-2 rocket.[5][6]
Later that day, a V-2 rocket from Wassenaar in the Netherlands, launched by 485 Artillerie Abteilung at 6.37pm, would hit Staveley Road in west London.
Demographics
The population data in the table and graph below refer to the commune of Maisons-Alfort proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Maisons-Alfort ceded the commune of Alfortville in 1885.[7]
Historical population
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1793
1,077
—
1800
807
−4.04%
1806
900
+1.83%
1821
615
−2.51%
1831
1,257
+7.41%
1836
1,515
+3.80%
1841
1,892
+4.54%
1846
1,590
−3.42%
1851
1,812
+2.65%
1856
2,317
+5.04%
1861
3,748
+10.10%
1866
4,049
+1.56%
1872
5,890
+6.45%
1876
7,619
+6.65%
1881
9,174
+3.78%
1886
7,034
−5.17%
1891
7,853
+2.23%
1896
9,479
+3.84%
Year
Pop.
±% p.a.
1901
10,547
+2.16%
1906
13,409
+4.92%
1911
16,466
+4.19%
1921
20,997
+2.46%
1926
25,108
+3.64%
1931
31,012
+4.31%
1936
34,384
+2.09%
1946
36,485
+0.59%
1954
40,358
+1.27%
1962
51,186
+3.02%
1968
53,149
+0.63%
1975
54,146
+0.27%
1982
51,065
−0.83%
1990
53,375
+0.55%
1999
51,103
−0.48%
2007
53,085
+0.48%
2012
54,186
+0.41%
2017
55,655
+0.54%
Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. Updates on reimplementing the Graph extension, which will be known as the Chart extension, can be found on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.
1 This group is made up largely of former French settlers, such as pieds-noirs in Northwest Africa, followed by former colonial citizens who had French citizenship at birth (such as was often the case for the native elite in French colonies), as well as to a lesser extent foreign-born children of French expatriates. A foreign country is understood as a country not part of France in 1999, so a person born for example in 1950 in Algeria, when Algeria was an integral part of France, is nonetheless listed as a person born in a foreign country in French statistics.
2 An immigrant is a person born in a foreign country not having French citizenship at birth. An immigrant may have acquired French citizenship since moving to France, but is still considered an immigrant in French statistics. On the other hand, persons born in France with foreign citizenship (the children of immigrants) are not listed as immigrants.
