Founding year: Wikidata. First post office: 1891.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Langston’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Langston is more historic than 67% 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 Langston’s overall grade.
Oklahoma towns list more on the Register than most of the country (a typical Oklahoma town has 5.9 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Langston’s 65.0 sits above most of its state (90% of Oklahoma towns have fewer) while its 11 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C+ to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.7 points). Two sources give 1890.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 Langston’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Langston was founded on April 22, 1890, by Edward P. McCabe, a Black American political figure from Kansas. McCabe helped lead a migration of black settlers from southern U.S. states who hoped to escape discrimination by creating a majority-black state in what was then the Territory of Oklahoma. He named the town for John Mercer Langston, a black member of the 51st United States Congress from Virginia. McCabe used traveling salesmen and African-American newspapers to advertise lots for sale in Langston, and the deeds which accompanied the sale of these lots stipulated that their re-sale could only be to other African-Americans.
In 1890, according to Wikidata. Langston’s post office opened in 1891, and the census of 1900 counted 251 people here.
How does Langston rank for history?
Langston is more historic than 67% 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 Langston?
5 listings: 3 buildings, among them the Morris House (listed 1994, the first), 1 historic district, the Langston University Cottage Row Historic District, with 8 contributing buildings, and 1 object. 11 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Langston?
15% of Langston’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.7 points), against a typical 7.0% for an Oklahoma town; the median home was built in 1978.
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 (5), 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) 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.
