More historic than 7% of U.S. towns · #502 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of La Feria was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1917 on and the census since 1920.
Founding year: the first La Feria post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives La Feria’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, La Feria is more historic than 7% of U.S. towns, #502 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 La Feria’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 La Feria’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 D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±0.7 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 La Feria’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Arroyo AltoArroyo Alto ColoniaBarrington Heights ColoniaNorth La Feria Village ColoniaSierra Alto Mobile Home ColoniaSolisSolis ColoniaValle Verde Colonia
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Every building
La Feria, building by building, 1917–1929
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.
The story so far
La Feria, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of La Feria yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
La Feria is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. Its population was 6,817 at the time of the 2020 census. It is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville, the Matamoros–Brownsville, and the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission metropolitan areas.
Its first post office opened in 1909. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 7,302 to 6,817 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
La Feria, 1909 to 1991
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
The La Feria post office opened in 1909, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does La Feria rank for history?
La Feria is more historic than 7% of U.S. towns, #502 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 La Feria?
0.8% of La Feria’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 (1), 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.
2004
