More historic than 13% of U.S. towns · #425 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Argyle was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2002. Below: maps from 1960 on and the census since 1970.
The Argyle post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Pilot Knob (1878), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 443 in 19702020 census: 4,403145 years
How historic is Argyle?
D
More historic than 13% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Argyle post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Argyle’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Argyle is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns, #425 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Argyle’s overall grade.
Few Texas towns list much on the Register (a typical Texas town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Argyle’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (34% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% 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 (±1.2 points) is firm at this size. 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 Argyle’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first European settlement, consisting of a few families, occurred in the Argyle area in the 1850s. The place was then known as Pilot Knob or Waintown. The settlement gradually acquired a few amenities in the late 1800s - a school in 1875, a Baptist church in 1876, and a post office in 1878. The community was formally founded and renamed Argyle in 1881, after the Texas and Pacific Railroad built a track through the area. Some believe a railroad surveyor named the town after a garden in France, but others believe the town to be named after the region of Argyll in Scotland. Also around this time, Sam Bass, an infamous outlaw who stole $60,000 in gold coins from the Union Pacific Railroad, was rumored to have stashed the gold in a cave. Sam Bass died when he was 27, and it was rumored he never lived to retrieve the gold.
The Argyle post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Argyle rank for history?
Argyle is more historic than 13% of U.S. towns, #425 of 642 in Texas. 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.
How old are the homes in Argyle?
0.0% of Argyle’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2002.
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 (1), 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.
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