More historic than 8% of U.S. towns · #499 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Donna was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1914 on, and the census since 1920.
The Donna post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Run (1904), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
First census: 1,579 in 19202020 census: 16,797118 years
How historic is Donna?
D
More historic than 8% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
Founding year: the first Donna post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Donna’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Donna is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #499 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Donna’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 Donna’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 still be D. The pre-1940 share (±0.9 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 Donna’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Donna is in southeastern Hidalgo County, 11 miles (18 km) east of McAllen, in territory that was granted to Lino Cabazos as part of the La Blanca land grant on May 19, 1834, by the Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The Cabazos family inhabited the area for at least twenty years after taking possession of the land, and their descendants continued to live in the area into the twentieth century. The first known Anglo-American settler was John F. Webber, who, accompanied by his wife Sylvia (Hector), a former slave, settled in the area in 1839. The Webbers moved to the area in order to escape persecution for their interracial marriage.
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.
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.
1917Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Then & now
Stand where they stood
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Retake this viewDonna TX - Nov 15 1916, 1916
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Donna’s page.
The Donna post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Donna rank for history?
Donna is more historic than 8% of U.S. towns, #499 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.
How old are the homes in Donna?
1% of Donna’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 (4), 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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