Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Cross Timbers was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1997. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1887 on, and the census since 1880.
The Cross Timbers post office opened in 1847, 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 Cross Timbers’s history is told.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Cross Timbers. 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 Cross Timbers.
Peaked at 217 in 1980; 119 people lived here in 2020.
9 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Cross Timbers’ Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Cross Timbers.
A post office called Cross Timbers has been in operation since 1847. The community was named for a strip of trees (colloquially a "cross timber") near the original town site. The town was platted in 1871.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyNo then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Cross Timbers’ page.
Retake this view · +15Nobody well known was born in Cross Timbers itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
The Cross Timbers post office opened in 1847, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
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 Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, 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.
Date?
2004
