More historic than 15% of U.S. towns · #396 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Cedar Park was built recently: 0.4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2005. Below: maps from 1962 on and the census since 1930.
Founding year: the first Cedar Park post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Cedar Park’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Cedar Park is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #396 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 Cedar Park’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 Cedar Park’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 (±0.4 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 Cedar Park’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Before the arrival of European settlers in the 19th century, the Cedar Park area was inhabited by Native American tribes including the Tonkawa, Lipan Apache, and Comanche. A Paleo-Indian archaeological site (Wilson-Leonard site) was discovered in Cedar Park in 1973 that showed evidence of continual habitation of the area since c. 5,000 BC.
In the mid-19th century, the community was known as Running Brushy, named after a spring that formed the headwaters of a creek of the same name. In 1873, George and Harriet Cluck, after having run cattle up the Chisholm Trail for many years, bought 329 acres (1.33 km2) of land that included the Running Brushy spring. Their ranch formed the core of the community that became Cedar Park.
The Cedar Park post office opened in 1887, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Cedar Park rank for history?
Cedar Park is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #396 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 Cedar Park?
0.4% of Cedar Park’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2005.
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 (9), 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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