Founding year: the first De Leon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives De Leon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, De Leon is more historic than 47% of U.S. towns. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
B−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of De Leon’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 De Leon’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 (±7.1 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 Leon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The town was laid out in April 1881 by surveying crews of the Texas Central Railway as part of the historic Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (KATY) as it constructed a line from Ross just north of the Waco area, to Stamford, with the ultimate goal of extending the line to Colorado. The first city lots were auctioned on July 7, 1881, by Robert Morris Elgin, the Texas Central's land agent and for whom the town of Elgin had been named.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The De Leon post office opened in 1881, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does De Leon rank for history?
De Leon is more historic than 47% 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 Leon?
25% of De Leon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±7.1 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1955.
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), 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.
1939
1939
2022
2022
2004