Founding year: the first Barton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Barton’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Barton is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Barton’s overall grade.
New Mexico towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical New Mexico town has 2.2 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Barton’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (28% of New Mexico 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 is a Census survey estimate (±5.3 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 Barton’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Barton yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Barton is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo and Santa Fe counties, New Mexico, United States. It was first listed as a CDP prior to the 2020 census. As of the 2020 census, Barton had a population of 1,282. Barton is in eastern Bernalillo County and the southwest corner of Santa Fe County. It is bordered to the east by the town of Edgewood and to the northwest by Sedillo. Interstate 40 forms the northern border of the community, leading west 25 miles (40 km) to Albuquerque and east 90 miles (140 km) to Santa Rosa. New Mexico State Road 217 crosses Barton from its start at I-40 and leads south 7 miles (11 km) to New Mexico State Road 222 near Manzano Springs.
Its first post office opened in 1908.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Barton, 1908 to 1954
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Barton post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Barton rank for history?
Barton is more historic than 10% of U.S. towns. 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 Barton?
3% of Barton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.3 points), against a typical 2.3% for a New Mexico town; the median home was built in 1998.
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 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.
