More historic than 16% of U.S. towns · #553 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of Moraga was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1972. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1897 on, and the census since 1970.
The Moraga post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Saint Mary's College (1928), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
First census: 14,205 in 19702020 census: 16,870140 years
How historic is Moraga?
C−
More historic than 16% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Moraga post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Moraga’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Moraga is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #553 of 847 in California. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Moraga’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 Moraga’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 C−. The pre-1940 share (±0.9 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 Moraga’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The land now called Moraga was first inhabited by the Saklan people, who belonged to the Bay Miwok language group.
Joaquin Moraga was the grandson of José Joaquín Moraga, builder of the Presidio of San Francisco and founder of the pueblo that grew into the city of San Jose. Joaquin's father Gabriel Moraga was also a soldier, and an early explorer who named many of the state's rivers, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin.
Passages that mention Moraga, cut from the printed page as they were published.
The history of Contra Costa County, California1917 · page 292Read the page →
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Emerging from Redwood Canon you see the Moraga Valley spread out like a map below. Presently the train is on the floor of this fertile and beautiful valley at Moraga Station, the center of a settlement of commuters.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Contra Costa County, California1926 · page 251Read the page →
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April 1871. — James Steele and Isaac Yoakum were arrested in the Moraga Valley for assault upon the Moraga family. Some fifteen or twenty shots were fired from rifles; one horse, ridden by a Moraga, was killed. The affray was a dispute over the possession of land, originally owned and occupied by the Moragas but claimed by Carpentier and Yoakum under judicial decrees.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
The history of Contra Costa County, California1917 · page 185Read the page →
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Killing of Thomas Sheridan. — A serious affray occurred on June 12, 1880, in Moraga Valley, which resulted in the death of Thomas Sheridan, a young man of eighteen or nineteen years of age. The difficulty occurred on land lying south or southeast of the Moraga Rancho, claimed as being in the Sobrante grant, but supposed to be public land, and occupied as such for ten years past. Upon a quarter-section of this land, with consent, or upon bargain with the original squatter claimant, S. S. Kendall, an old resident of the Moraga Valley, had cut a quantity
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Moraga, 1886 to 1997
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Moraga post office opened in 1886, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Moraga rank for history?
Moraga is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #553 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 Moraga?
1% of Moraga’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1972.
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 (10), the Library of Congress (1), 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), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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