Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1902.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Maywood’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Maywood is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #331 of 847 in California. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Maywood’s overall grade.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Maywood’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (31% of California 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 B−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.4 points). Two sources give 1924.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Maywood’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The land on which Maywood stands had been populated by Native American tribes for centuries. The area that would later become Maywood was deeded in 1781 by the Spanish monarchy to Spanish War veteran Manuel Nieto. When the settlement of Pueblo de Nuestra Senora de Los Angeles was recorded, it included the cow pasture (now Maywood) that eventually turned into a rancho.
In 1919, May Wood, a popular young woman who worked for the real estate corporation developing the 2,300 acres (930 hectares) ranch into home tracts, agreed to lend her name to the property. The development of Maywood later survived a bitter challenge to dissolve the prospective city in early 1924.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
In 1924, according to Wikidata. Maywood’s post office opened in 1902, and the census of 1930 counted 6,794 people here.
How does Maywood rank for history?
Maywood is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #331 of 847 in California. 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 Maywood?
23% of Maywood’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1953.
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 Wikimedia Commons (5), 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.
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