Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns · #86 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Corpus Christi was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: 7 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1860.
Corpus Christi dates its founding to 1839 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
The city's name means body of Christ in Ecclesiastical Latin, in reference to the Christian sacrament of Holy Communion.
More historic than 62% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Corpus Christi is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #86 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, Corpus Christi ranks #205 on History.
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 Corpus Christi’s 0.4 sits above most of its state (71% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 14 listings outnumber those of 78% of U.S. towns.
Newer cities are common at Corpus Christi’s size: in the typical U.S. city of 100,000 or more, 5% of homes predate 1940.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier.
★ Landmark
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Corpus Christi’s post office has been open since 1844. Five other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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 year, then a sheet.
1885Sheet 1 of 2Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Corpus Christi.
Spaniard Alonso Alvarez de Pineda traveled in 1519 to this bay on the day of the religious Feast of Corpus Christi, so named the semitropical bay Corpus Christi.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveBirds-eye view, of the camp of the "army of occupation" near Corpus Christi, Texas, as in…
In the archiveFpc charter
In the archiveTexas
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
BuiltSherman Building is built
Born hereFarrah Fawcett is born here
Born hereBobby Julich is born here
Born hereJeremy Jordan is born here3 decades in the archive, from the 1840s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Corpus Christi. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Corpus Christi.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Corpus Christi’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 100 people in 1860 to 317,863 in 2020, more than tenfold.
17 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Corpus Christi’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1839, according to Wikidata. Corpus Christi’s post office opened in 1844, and the census of 1860 counted 100 people here.
Corpus Christi is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns, #86 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.
14 listings: 11 buildings, among them the Nueces County Courthouse (listed 1976, the first), 1 site, and 2 structures.
3% of Corpus Christi’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1982.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (14), 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), 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.
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