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History · San Jose

San Jose’s post office opened in 1858, and 80% of its homes were built before 1940

Below: maps from 1960 on.

1858first post office
0on the National Register
80%homes built before 1940
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How San Jose began

When was San Jose founded?

1858

The San Jose post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 67168 years
Founding year: the first San Jose post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about San Jose’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of San Jose are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Old housesHalf of San Jose’s homes were built before 1938.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start San Jose’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how San Jose’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How San Jose came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of San Jose.

Read it all →

San Jose was founded in 1803 when allotments of land were made to 45 men and two women by the Spanish government of New Mexico. The purpose of the settlement, and others in the Pecos River valley, was to defend the eastern flanks of the New Mexican settlements from Indian attacks, especially by the Apaches. Many of the early settlers were landless genizaros. Many of the comancheros and ciboleros who traded with the Comanche and hunted bison on the Great Plains came from San Jose and other Pecos Valley settlements.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

San Jose, 1828 to 1960

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1828Born hereJosé Guadalupe Gallegos is born here
  3. 1858Post officeThe San Jose post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
Add from your album
On the map

San Jose on the map, 1960 to 2002

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of San Jose. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

San Jose on the 1960 USGS mapSan Jose on the 1989 USGS mapSan Jose on the 2002 USGS map1960Villanueva sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of San Jose.

Places that used to be

Places now gone

San Jose’s post office has been open since 1858.

Gone or out of use
San Jose Post Officepost office

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about San Jose’s history

What year was San Jose founded?

The San Jose post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.