Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns · #26 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Orange was built recently: 7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1973. 5 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 179 buildings. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1885 on, and the census since 1860.
Orange dates its founding to 1830 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1860.
More historic than 81% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Orange is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #26 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
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 Orange’s 95.9 sits above most of its state (96% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 184 historic buildings outnumber those of 93% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: Wikidata (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Orange’s post office has been open since 1858. Two other post offices opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
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.
1885Sheet 1 of 3Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
From Wikipedia’s history of Orange.
This community was originally called Greens Bluff after a man named Resin Green, a Sabine River boatman, who arrived at this location sometime before 1830. A short time later, in 1840, the town was renamed Madison in honor of President James Madison.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveDetail, Hanging Tree Lynching Orange Texas 1888 (cropped)
In the archiveTexas
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereJohn Oliver Creighton is born here
Born hereBobby Kimball is born here
Born hereKay Panabaker is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Orange. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Orange.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Orange’s page.
Retake this view · +15Between 936 and 25,605 people in every census since 1860.
15 censuses, 1860–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Orange’s Wikipedia page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
In 1830, according to Wikidata. Orange’s post office opened in 1848, and the census of 1860 counted 936 people here.
Orange is more historic than 81% of U.S. towns, #26 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.
5 listings: 4 buildings, among them the W. H. Stark House (listed 1976, the first), and 1 historic district, the Navy Park Historic District, with 179 contributing buildings. 184 historic buildings in all.
7% of Orange’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.0 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1973.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (5), 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), 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.
1888
1888
1917
1917
