More historic than 12% of U.S. towns · #443 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Groves was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1967. Below: maps from 1943 on and the census since 1960.
Founding year: the first Groves post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Groves’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Groves is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #443 of 642 in Texas. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Groves’ 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 Groves’ 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 D to C−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±3.4 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 Groves’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
In 1886, Sam Courville moved his family from a Sabine Lake settlement in Port Arthur to a new home on 640 acres (2.6 km2) of land. In that general area around 1911, John Warne Gates purchased additional tracts of land. The land was conveyed to the Griffing brothers of Port Arthur in 1916, and three years later Griffing Brothers Nursery employee Wiley Choate supervised the planting of several thousand pecan trees on a 385-acre (1.56 km2) tract. In 1921, the Port Arthur Land Development Company took control of the site and divided the land into a residential subdivision known as "Pecan Grove". The name was later changed to "Groves", after development representative and pioneer Port Arthurian Asa Groves.
The Groves post office opened in 1929, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Groves rank for history?
Groves is more historic than 12% of U.S. towns, #443 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 Groves?
5% of Groves’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.4 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1967.
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 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) 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.
