Founding year: the first Los Luceros post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Los Luceros’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Los Luceros is more historic than 60% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Los Luceros’ 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 Luceros’ 44.0 sits above most of its state (84% of New Mexico towns have fewer) while its 5 historic buildings outnumber those of 70% 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 (±18.5 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 Luceros’ 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 Los Luceros yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Los Luceros is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, Los Luceros had a population of 891. It includes or is close to Los Luceros Hacienda, a historic plantation with chapel that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 906 in 2010, 891 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Los Luceros, 1855 to 1953
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The Los Luceros post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Los Luceros rank for history?
Los Luceros is more historic than 60% 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.
What is on the National Register in Los Luceros?
One place: the Los Luceros Hacienda (listed 1983).
How old are the homes in Los Luceros?
13% of Los Luceros’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±18.5 points), against a typical 2.3% for a New Mexico town; the median home was built in 1991.
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 the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
