More historic than 3% of U.S. towns · #591 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Los Fresnos was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1999. Below: maps from 1930 on and the census since 1950.
Founding year: the first Los Fresnos post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Los Fresnos’ History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Los Fresnos is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #591 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Los Fresnos’ 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 Los Fresnos’ 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 (±0.8 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 Los Fresnos’ past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Los Fresnos yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Los Fresnos is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. The population was 8,114 at the 2020 census, up from 5,542 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas. Located in south-central Cameron County, the city was named for the fresnos (Fraxinus berlandieriana) scattered in the woods and along streams. In 1912, Lon Hill, an early landowner, formed a company to develop a canal system that would use the Rio Grande to irrigate land for farming. Railroad construction in the early 1900s began to bring settlers to the area, and by 1915, a post office was established. Because of the fertile, irrigated land, farm p…
Its first post office opened in 1919. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 5,542 to 8,114 (+46%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
The Los Fresnos post office opened in 1919, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Los Fresnos rank for history?
Los Fresnos is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns, #591 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 Los Fresnos?
0.0% of Los Fresnos’ homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1999.
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 the Library of Congress (4), 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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