Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Celina

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
CHistory
History · Celina

Celina’s post office opened in 1881, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 34% of U.S. towns · #214 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Its Register listing is the Celina Public School. Most of Celina was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2015. Below: maps from 1920 on and the census since 1910.

1881first post office
1on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
Add an old photoShare a memory
Quick answers

How Celina began

When was Celina founded?

1881

The Celina post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Rhea`s Mills (1876), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

First census: 724 in 19102020 census: 16,739145 years

How historic is Celina?

C

More historic than 34% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives Celina’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Celina is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #214 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Celina’s overall grade.
Founding era1881, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19401.3% of homes (±1.9) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%DNational Register1 listing, 3 historic buildings, 0.9 per 10,000 residents · typical TX town 0.0 · U.S. 2.4B+
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 34%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 67%

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 Celina’s 0.9 sits above most of its state (72% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 3 historic buildings outnumber those of 65% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C− to B−. The pre-1940 share (±1.9 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 Celina’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 Celina are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Celina’s collection

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

From Wikipedia’s history of Celina.

Read it all →

Although Celina was not established until 1876, settlers came into the area at a much earlier date. In October 1879, a settlement formed 1 mi (1.6 km) south of its current location. A Methodist church was built in 1880, and it doubled as a schoolhouse for a short time. Celina's first postmaster John T. Mulkey renamed the town after his hometown – Celina, Tennessee. By 1884, Celina had a gristmill, cotton gin, school, several general stores, and a drug store that has been opened in “Old Celina.”

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Celina, 1876 to 1960

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1876Post officeThe Rhea`s Mills post office opens
  3. 1881Post officeThe Celina post office opens
  4. 20th century
  5. 1907Post officeThe Rhea`s Mills post office closes
  6. 1960On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Celina, decade by decade

Today12 recent
Railroad Crossing on E G.A. Moore Pkwy2023Railroad Crossing on E G.A. Moore PkwyRailroad Crossing on Carthage Rd2023Railroad Crossing on Carthage RdCelina 1232022Celina 123Light Farms Water Tower2015Light Farms Water TowerWater Fixture2014Water FixtureVC Fireplace Hi-Res2014VC Fireplace Hi-ResVC Entry Hi-Res2014VC Entry Hi-ResLight Farms Fitness Center2014Light Farms Fitness CenterLight Farms Entrance2014Light Farms EntranceOld Nelson Hotel, Celina, Texas Historical Marker2013Old Nelson Hotel, Celina, Texas Historical MarkerCelina, Texas2013Celina, TexasCelina, Texas (2013)2013Celina, Texas (2013)
On the map

Celina on the map in 1960

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Celina.

Celina on the 1960 USGS map1960Celina 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 Celina.

Every building

Celina, building by building, 1920

Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a sheet.

Celina fire insurance map, 1920, sheet 11920Sheet 1 of 7
BrickWoodStone

Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

On the National Register

1 historic place in Celina

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
3
each building in a district counts
first listed
2009
Celina Public School
Celina Public School
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

WPA Moderne1
Celina Public SchoolWPA Moderne

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Celina, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,00012,00014,00016,00018,00019201940196019802000202016,739

Grew from 724 people in 1910 to 16,739 in 2020, more than tenfold.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

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

Places that used to be

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

Celina’s post office has been open since 1881. Another post office, Rhea`s Mills, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Rhea`s Mills
1876–1907
Celina
1881–today
18701950today
Hamlets and corners on the map
Rhea Mills
Gone or out of use
Aero Estates AirportairportCelina Field Airportairport
2cemeteries and burying grounds inside Celina
Old CelinaOld Union

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.

ProsperIts storyDPilot Point1 historic placeB

Questions about Celina’s history

What year was Celina founded?

The Celina post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Celina rank for history?

Celina is more historic than 34% of U.S. towns, #214 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.

What is on the National Register in Celina?

One place: the Celina Public School (listed 2009).

How old are the homes in Celina?

1% of Celina’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.9 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2015.

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 (12), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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 Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.