Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0More historic than 37% of U.S. towns · #194 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Its Register listing is the Crystal City Internment Camp. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1939 on, and the census since 1930.
Crystal City dates its founding to 1907 (Wikipedia’s history). The census first counted it in 1930.
More historic than 37% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Crystal City is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #194 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Crystal City’s 1.6 sits above most of its state (74% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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.
Peaked at 9,101 in 1960; 6,354 people lived here in 2020.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Crystal City’s Wikipedia page.
From Wikipedia’s history of Crystal City.
Crystal City was originally settled by American farmers and ranchers producing cattle and various crops.
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 archive1940 Census Enumeration District Maps - Texas - Zavala County - Crystal City - ED 254-3, …
In the archiveMexican mother and child in their home. Note flies which are prevalent in all these Mexic…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Crystal City. 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 Crystal City.
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 Crystal City’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Crystal City’s post office has been open since 1908.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1907, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Crystal City’s post office opened in 1908, and the census of 1930 counted 6,609 people here.
Crystal City is more historic than 37% of U.S. towns, #194 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.
One place: the Crystal City Internment Camp (listed 2014).
12% of Crystal City’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±10.1 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1973.
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 (3), the Library of Congress (3), 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) 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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