Most of Prewitt was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Its Register listing is the Route 66, State maintained from Milan to Continental Divid. Below: maps from 1963 on.
Founding year: the first Prewitt post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Prewitt’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Prewitt is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Prewitt’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 Prewitt’s 9.7 sits above most of its state (74% of New Mexico towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% 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 (±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 Prewitt’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 Prewitt yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Prewitt (Navajo: Kin Łigaaí) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. It is located along Interstate 40, 20 miles (32 km) northwest of Grants. Prewitt has a post office with ZIP code 87045. As of the 2020 census, the population of Prewitt was 842.
Its first post office opened in 1928.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Places that used to be
Places now gone
Prewitt’s post office has been open since 1928.
Gone or out of use
Williams Propertymine
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Questions about Prewitt’s history
What year was Prewitt founded?
The Prewitt post office opened in 1928, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Prewitt rank for history?
Prewitt is more historic than 15% 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 Prewitt?
One place: the Route 66, State maintained from Milan to Continental Divid (listed 1997).
How old are the homes in Prewitt?
0.0% of Prewitt’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 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 Wikimedia Commons (5), the Library of Congress (1), 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.
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