Founding year: the first Alamosa post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Alamosa’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Alamosa is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #28 of 159 in Colorado. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Alamosa’s overall grade.
Few Colorado towns list much on the Register (a typical Colorado town has 1.1 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Alamosa’s 11.1 sits above most of its state (73% of Colorado towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.4 points). 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 Alamosa’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
The Alamosa, Colorado, post office opened on March 12, 1878, and the Town of Alamosa was incorporated on August 12, 1878. The town was established by the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad and quickly became an important rail center. Alamosa was the terminus of the D&RG until 1881, when the line was extended to Monte Vista. The railroad had an extensive construction, repair, and shipping facility in Alamosa for many years and headquartered its remaining narrow-gauge service here with trackage reaching many points throughout southwest Colorado and northern New Mexico. Alamosa County was created on March 8, 1913, with Alamosa as its first and only seat.
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.
The Alamosa post office opened in 1878, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Alamosa rank for history?
Alamosa is more historic than 57% of U.S. towns, #28 of 159 in Colorado. 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.
What is on the National Register in Alamosa?
9 listings: 8 buildings, among them the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Depot (listed 1993, the first), and 1 structure. 11 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Alamosa?
11% of Alamosa’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 2.5% for a Colorado town; the median home was built in 1976.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (7), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (9), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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