Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Its Register listing is the Cecil Ranch. Below: maps from 1911 on.
The Grimes post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Grimes’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Grimes. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Grimes.
From Wikipedia’s history of Grimes.
The post office was established in 1883. Grimes is named after Cleaton Grimes, who obtained the townsite land in 1844.
The Cecil Ranch in Grimes is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, partly for the architecture of its architect-designed main house, built in 1909.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Nobody well known was born in Grimes itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Grimes post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
One place: the Cecil Ranch (listed 2004).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From the National Register of Historic Places (1), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
