Founding year: the first Holland post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1881.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Holland’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Holland is more historic than 39% of U.S. towns. 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 Holland’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 Holland’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 (±13.1 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1881 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.
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 Holland’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Holland's history reaches back to a time before the Civil War, when a community known as Mountain Home began to grow up near Gotcher's Mountain, a hill south of town. A post office was established on August 22, 1870, under the name Mountain Home, with James Shaw as postmaster. On November 6, 1871, the Mountain Home post office was officially closed.
In 1881, an extension of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad was laid out from Denison to Taylor, and the tracks were constructed through Bell County in 1881 and 1882, from north to south, passing through the Holland community. This brought about the town of Holland as it is known today.
Between 368 and 1,121 people in every census since 1890.
14 censuses, 1890–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Holland’s Wikipedia page.
Questions about Holland’s history
What year was Holland founded?
The Holland post office opened in 1879, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1881.
How does Holland rank for history?
Holland is more historic than 39% 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 Holland?
17% of Holland’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±13.1 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1987.
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) 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.
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