Founding year: the first Ferris post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Ferris’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Ferris is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #235 of 642 in Texas. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Ferris’ 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 Ferris’ 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 C+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.3 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 Ferris’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Settlement of the area began in the early 1870s. On September 28, 1874, a local family deeded approximately 100 acres (0.40 km2) of land to four trustees for the establishment of a town and railway station. Judge Justus Wesley Ferris of Waxahachie handled the transaction, and the community was named for him. Within ten years, Ferris had a population of 300 with a post office, gristmills, cotton gins, four churches, and a school.
The Ferris post office opened in 1874, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Ferris rank for history?
Ferris is more historic than 31% of U.S. towns, #235 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 Ferris?
11% of Ferris’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.3 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1985.
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 (6), Wikipedia, 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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