Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns · #129 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Ennis was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1990. 40 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 53 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1884 on, and the census since 1880.
The Ennis post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 51% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ennis is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #129 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 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 Ennis’ 41.2 sits above most of its state (93% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 93 historic buildings outnumber those of 89% of U.S. towns.
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 →
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. Boundary changes and added documentation are counted with their listing.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Ennis’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Ennis.
In 1871, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad (H&TC) arrived at the spot that would become Ennis as it built north towards Dallas. The city was established that year and surveyed a year later. It is named after Cornelius Ennis, a founder of the H&TC Railroad.
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 archiveThe house that cotton built. Ennis, Texas
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereAlfred H. Bennett is born hereOne decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Ennis. 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 Ennis.
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.
1884Sheet 1 of 1Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
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 Ennis’ page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,351 people in 1880 to 20,159 in 2020, more than tenfold.
15 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Ennis’ Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Ennis’s post office has been open since 1872.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Ennis post office opened in 1872, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Ennis is more historic than 51% of U.S. towns, #129 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.
40 listings: 39 buildings, among them the Barrington House (listed 1986, the first), and 1 historic district, the Ennis Commercial Historic District, with 53 contributing buildings. 93 historic buildings in all.
3% of Ennis’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.7 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1990.
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 (4), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (40), 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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