Founding year: the first Los Chaves post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Los Chaves’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Los Chaves is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #52 of 73 in New Mexico. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Los Chaves’ 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 Los Chaves’ 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 (±4.0 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 Los Chaves’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The settlement of Los Chavez, on the west bank of the Río Grande, dates to a 1738 grant to Nicolás Durán y Chávez from Atrisco. In 1790, it consisted of six plazas (Julyan 1996:78; Espinosa and Chávez 1967:41- 43). It was included in the 1802 census (Olmsted 1981:139-140). In the autumn of 1847, a unit of the U.S. Army traveled south along the west bank of the Río Grande. Philip Gooch Ferguson reported that “the road most generally traveled” was on the east bank, but the west side of the river was better for water. Ferguson mentioned camping near a small town named “Plaza Chavez” (Bieber 1936:326-328).
The Los Chaves post office opened in 1929, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Los Chaves rank for history?
Los Chaves is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #52 of 73 in New Mexico. 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 Los Chaves?
5% of Los Chaves’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.0 points), against a typical 2.3% for a New Mexico town; the median home was built in 1988.
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 (2), Wikipedia, 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.
2015
2015
