Most of Mayflower was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1995. Below: maps from 1953 on and the census since 1930.
Founding year: the first Mayflower post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Mayflower’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Mayflower is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Mayflower’s overall grade.
Arkansas towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Arkansas town has 20.5 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Mayflower’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (11% of Arkansas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C−. The pre-1940 share (±2.7 points) is firm at this size. 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 Mayflower’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Mayflower is a small town located along Interstate 40 southeast of Conway (Faulkner County) and northwest of Little Rock (Pulaski County). Located on the southwestern edge of Lake Conway, Mayflower is particularly known for its fishing. Like many of the smaller towns of Faulkner County, such as Vilonia and Greenbrier, Mayflower offers a rural lifestyle within a short drive of Conway and Little Rock, where many of its residents commute to work. It was incorporated as a town in Arkansas on March 6, 1928.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mayflower. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1953Mayflower sheet · 1:24,000
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Mayflower.
People over time
Mayflower, census by census
Between 165 and 2,234 people in every census since 1930.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Mayflower’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Mayflower’s history
What year was Mayflower founded?
The Mayflower post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Mayflower rank for history?
Mayflower is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns. 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.
How old are the homes in Mayflower?
3% of Mayflower’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.7 points), against a typical 3.1% for an Arkansas town; the median home was built in 1995.
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 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) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
