Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #6 of 73 in New Mexico. What drives it
10 places in town are on the National Register, among them three historic districts with 474 buildings between them. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1886 on, and the census since 1890.
The Raton post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Raton is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #6 of 73 in New Mexico. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Raton’s 798 sits above most of its state (100% of New Mexico towns have fewer) while its 481 historic buildings outnumber those of 97% of U.S. towns.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Raton’s history is told.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1886Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Raton.
Raton Pass had been used by Spanish explorers and Native Americans for centuries to cut through the rugged Rocky Mountains, and the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail cuts through the city, along what is now Business I-25.
The post office at this location was named Willow Springs from 1877 to 1879, Otero from 1879 to 1880, then renamed Raton in 1880.
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 Survey
Born herePetro Vlahos is born here
In the archiveNew Mexico - Phillips Hole through
In the archiveFAP 1-F, South Side of Raton, Looking North from South End of ProjectBuiltColumbian School is builtBuiltLongfellow School is built
Born herePaul L. Modrich is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Raton. 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 Raton.
No 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 Raton’s page.
Retake this view · +15Peaked at 8,241 in 1950; 6,041 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Raton’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Raton’s post office has been open since 1880.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The Raton post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Raton is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #6 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.
10 listings: 7 buildings and 3 historic districts, the Raton Downtown Historic District, the Original Townsite Historic District and the Raton Pass Scenic Highway, with 474 contributing buildings. 481 historic buildings in all.
22% of Raton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±4.4 points), against a typical 2.3% for a New Mexico town; the median home was built in 1959.
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).
From Wikimedia Commons (3), Wikidata (3), the National Register of Historic Places (10), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
1917