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C−History
History · Burleson

Burleson’s post office opened in 1882

More historic than 16% of U.S. towns · #373 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Most of Burleson was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2002. Below: maps from 1955 on and the census since 1920.

1882first post office
0on the National Register
0.8%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Billy Hathorn assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 3.0
Quick answers

How Burleson began

When was Burleson founded?

1882

The Burleson post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Cross Timbers (1870), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 241 in 19202020 census: 47,641144 years

How historic is Burleson?

C−

More historic than 16% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Burleson post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Burleson’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Burleson is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #373 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Burleson’s overall grade.
Founding era1882, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19400.8% of homes (±0.5) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%DNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical TX town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 16%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 42%

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 Burleson’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 (±0.5 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 Burleson’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 Burleson are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Burleson’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Burleson’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 Burleson came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Burleson.

Read it all →

The Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, known as "the Katy", extended its service from Denison to Waco. In 1880 the segment from Fort Worth to Alvarado was being laid out, and a midway depot was needed. Grenville M. Dodge, representing the railroad, purchased land for the depot and a town surrounding it from Rev. Henry C. Renfro at the site of what is now called "Old Town" Burleson. As part of the agreement, Renfro named the town "Burleson", in honor of his teacher Rufus Columbus Burleson, the president of Baylor University. The first lot was sold on October 10, 1880, the date now considered the city's "founding day".

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Burleson in 1893

Passages that mention Burleson, cut from the printed page as they were published.

Jonathan l>mdeson, father of our subject, came to Texas in 1830, in company with his brotlier. General Edward Burleson, d’hey located where the town of Bastrop now stands, and at that time only three or four families lived between a settlement fifteen miles up the river to the first settlement ten …
History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties1893Read the page →
Read the text

Jonathan l>mdeson, father of our subject, came to Texas in 1830, in company with his brotlier. General Edward Burleson, d’hey located where the town of Bastrop now stands, and at that time only three or four families lived between a settlement fifteen miles up the river to the first settlement ten miles down the river. General Edward Burleson

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
He then moved to Burleson county, where he engaged in farming for seven or eight years, after wliich he embarked in the mercantile business at Caldwell, and has followed the same ever since. j\fr. Kraitcher was one of the first settlers of Bohemian birth in Burleson county. The first five families …
History of Texas, together with a biographical history of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson counties1893Read the page →
Read the text

He then moved to Burleson county, where he engaged in farming for seven or eight years, after wliich he embarked in the mercantile business at Caldwell, and has followed the same ever since. j\fr. Kraitcher was one of the first settlers of Bohemian birth in Burleson county. The first five families tlnit settled in this county came in the following

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

Timeline

Burleson, 1870 to 1955

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1870Post officeThe Cross Timbers post office opens
  3. 1882Post officeThe Burleson post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1904Post officeThe Cross Timbers post office closes
  6. 1955On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Burleson, decade by decade

Today7 recent
Burleson City Hall2025Burleson City HallBTX City Hall & Mayor Vera Calvin Plaza2025BTX City Hall & Mayor Vera Calvin PlazaMarystownCemeteryTX2020MarystownCemeteryTXSection of downtown Burleson, TX IMG 70882013Section of downtown Burleson, TX IMG 7088Railroad car in Burleson, TX IMG 70812013Railroad car in Burleson, TX IMG 7081First Baptist Church, Burleson, TX IMG 70902013First Baptist Church, Burleson, TX IMG 7090Burleson, TX, City Hall IMG 70802013Burleson, TX, City Hall IMG 7080
On the map

Burleson on the map, 1955 to 1981

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

Burleson on the 1955 USGS mapBurleson on the 1968 USGS mapBurleson on the 1973 USGS mapBurleson on the 1981 USGS map1955Burleson sheet · 1:24,000

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

People over time

Burleson, census by census

05,00010,00015,00020,00025,00030,00035,00040,00045,00050,00019201940196019802000202047,641

Grew from 241 people in 1920 to 47,641 in 2020, more than tenfold.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Burleson’s Wikipedia page.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners, places now gone and burying grounds

Burleson’s post office has been open since 1882. Another post office, Cross Timbers, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Cross Timbers
1870–1904
Burleson
1882–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Cross TimberKeeler
Gone or out of use
Bransom Farm Airportairport
4cemeteries and burying grounds inside Burleson
BethesdaBurleson MemorialCaddoPrairie Springs

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

Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

JoshuaIts storyC−Fort Worth103 historic placesA−CrowleyIts storyC−

Questions about Burleson’s history

What year was Burleson founded?

The Burleson post office opened in 1882, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Burleson rank for history?

Burleson is more historic than 16% of U.S. towns, #373 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 Burleson?

0.8% of Burleson’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2002.

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).

From Wikimedia Commons (7), Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.