6 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 171 buildings between them. Below: 3 old photos and papers from 1917 on.
Founding year: the first Marfa post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Marfa’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Marfa is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
A−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Marfa’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 Marfa’s 709 sits above most of its state (100% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 176 historic buildings outnumber those of 92% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±9.3 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 Marfa’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Marfa was founded in the early 1880s as a railroad water stop. The town was named "Marfa" (Russian for "Martha") at the suggestion of the wife of a railroad executive. Although some historians have hypothesized that the name came from a character in Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov, Marfa was actually named after Marfa Strogoff, a character in Jules Verne's novel Michael Strogoff. According to Sterry Butcher of the Texas Monthly, a writer researched the Karamazov story and deemed it false, but did not receive any letters to the editor after he submitted the story to the newspaper, so "No one cared. The story we had suited Marfa just fine."
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Marfa post office opened in 1883, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Marfa rank for history?
Marfa is more historic than 81% 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.
What is on the National Register in Marfa?
6 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Presidio County Courthouse (listed 1977, the first), and 2 historic districts, the Central Marfa Historic District and the Fort D.A. Russell Historic District/ Donald Judd Historic District, with 171 contributing buildings. 176 historic buildings in all.
How old are the homes in Marfa?
23% of Marfa’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±9.3 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1949.
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), Wikidata (2), the National Register of Historic Places (6), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, 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.
1917
2004