Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to De Kalb

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
B−History
History · De Kalb

De Kalb’s post office opened in 1839

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns. What drives it

Most of De Kalb was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1971.

1839first post office
0on the National Register
9%homes built before 1940
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
Photo: Renelibrary · CC BY-SA 4.0
Quick answers

How De Kalb began

When was De Kalb founded?

1839

The De Kalb post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 1,527187 years

How historic is De Kalb?

B−

More historic than 48% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

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

What drives De Kalb’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, De Kalb is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of De Kalb’s overall grade.
Founding era1839, from the first post office: founded 1776–1849, an older era than 75% of U.S. townsA−Homes built before 19408.5% of homes (±5.4) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%C+National 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 48%
NewerOlder

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 De Kalb’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 C to B. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.4 points). 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 De Kalb’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 De Kalb are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1839: 187 years of De Kalb.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start De Kalb’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how De Kalb’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
Timeline

De Kalb, 1839 to 1944

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1839Post officeThe De Kalb post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1928Born hereDan Blocker is born here
  5. 1944Born hereAl Perkins is born here
The story

How De Kalb came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of De Kalb.

Read it all →

On December 31, 1985, around 5:14 pm, a Douglas DC-3 private aircraft, N711Y, owned by Ricky Nelson, with a pilot, copilot, and seven passengers, including Nelson, his fiancée, and five members of his band, crashed in a wooded area near De Kalb. The plane was on a flight from Guntersville, Alabama, to Dallas, Texas, where Nelson was scheduled to appear at a New Year's Eve performance. All seven passengers were killed in the accident when the plane caught fire. The pilot and copilot were able to escape and survived.

On May 4, 1999, De Kalb took a direct hit to the downtown area from an EF-3 tornado. https://data.elpasotimes.com/tornado-archive/texas/5696338/

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

De Kalb, decade by decade

Today3 recent
January 21 tornado track2025January 21 tornado trackDowntown DeKalb Wiki2021Downtown DeKalb WikiTXMap-doton-DeKalb2004TXMap-doton-DeKalb
Famous people

2 famous people were born in De Kalb

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Dan BlockerAmerican actor · b. 1928
Al PerkinsAmerican musician · b. 1944

Questions about De Kalb’s history

What year was De Kalb founded?

The De Kalb post office opened in 1839, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does De Kalb rank for history?

De Kalb is more historic than 48% of U.S. towns. 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 De Kalb?

9% of De Kalb’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.4 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1971.

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 (3), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.