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CHistory
History · Pleasanton

Pleasanton’s post office opened in 1858, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

More historic than 30% of U.S. towns · #247 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Its Register listing is the Frederick and Sallie Lyons House. Most of Pleasanton was built recently: 1% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1956 on, and the census since 1870.

1858first post office
1on the National Register
1%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Pleasanton’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Pleasanton began

When was Pleasanton founded?

1858

The Pleasanton post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 206 in 18702020 census: 10,648168 years

How historic is Pleasanton?

C

More historic than 30% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Pleasanton post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Pleasanton’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Pleasanton is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #247 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.

C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Pleasanton’s overall grade.
Founding era1858, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19401.0% of homes (±1.2) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%DNational Register1 listing, 0.9 per 10,000 residents · typical TX town 0.0 · U.S. 2.4B
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 30%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 62%

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 Pleasanton’s 0.9 sits above most of its state (72% of Texas towns have fewer) while its 1 listings outnumber those of 51% of U.S. towns.

How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C+. The pre-1940 share (±1.2 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 Pleasanton’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Pleasanton’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Pleasanton’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewTexas - Paris through Port Aransas: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Pleasanton came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Pleasanton.

Read it all →

Pleasanton was established in 1858 when conflicts with the Native Americans caused the settlers to move the location of the county seat from Amphion. The settlers chose the current townsite because of its location at the mouth of Bonita Creek. John Bowen (died 1867), San Antonio's first Anglo-American postmaster, founded and named the town of Pleasanton after his good friend and fellow early Texas Settler John Pleasants.

At one time Pleasanton had two newspapers, the Pleasanton Picayune, which became the Pleasanton Express in 1909, and the Pleasanton Reporter. The county seat was relocated from Pleasanton to Jourdanton in 1910. Pleasanton was incorporated in 1917.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Pleasanton, 1858 to 1956

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 19th century
  2. 1858Post officeThe Pleasanton post office opens
  3. 20th century
  4. 1917In the archiveTexas - Paris through Port Aransas
  5. 1956On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Pleasanton, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s2 items
Texas - Paris through Port Aransas1917Texas - Paris through Port AransasTexas - Paris through Port Aransas1917Texas - Paris through Port Aransas
1920s–1990snothing yet
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.
Add from your album
Today4 recent
Covered wagon at Longhorn Museum in Pleasanton, TX IMG 26332010Covered wagon at Longhorn Museum in Pleasanton, TX IM…Coastal Bend College, Pleasanton, TX MG 25922010Coastal Bend College, Pleasanton, TX MG 2592Pleasanton, TX Express newspaper IMG 26232010Pleasanton, TX Express newspaper IMG 2623DocumentTXMap-doton-Pleasanton2004TXMap-doton-Pleasanton
On the map

Pleasanton on the map, 1956 to 1985

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Pleasanton. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Pleasanton on the 1956 USGS mapPleasanton on the 1968 USGS mapPleasanton on the 1985 USGS map1956Pleasanton sheet · 1:62,500

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Pleasanton.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Texas - Paris through Port Aransas
Retake this viewTexas - Paris through Port Aransas, 1917

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Pleasanton’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Pleasanton

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
2001
Frederick and Sallie Lyons House
Frederick and Sallie Lyons House
Buildings

Architectural styles listings

Modified L-Plan1
Frederick and Sallie Lyons HouseModified L-Plan

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

People over time

Pleasanton, census by census

02,0004,0006,0008,00010,0001880190019201940196019802000202010,648

Grew from 206 people in 1870 to 10,648 in 2020, more than tenfold.

14 censuses, 1870–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Pleasanton’s Wikipedia page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Pleasanton

Nobody well known was born in Pleasanton itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Joan CrawfordAmerican actress · b. 1905
Michelle RodriguezAmerican actress · b. 1978
Robert RodriguezAmerican filmmaker · b. 1968
J
Jared PadaleckiAmerican actor · b. 1982
Megan Thee StallionAmerican rapper, singer and songwriter · b. 1995
Rick RiordanAmerican author · b. 1964

Questions about Pleasanton’s history

What year was Pleasanton founded?

The Pleasanton post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

How does Pleasanton rank for history?

Pleasanton is more historic than 30% of U.S. towns, #247 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.

What is on the National Register in Pleasanton?

One place: the Frederick and Sallie Lyons House (listed 2001).

How old are the homes in Pleasanton?

1% of Pleasanton’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.2 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1984.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (1), Wikipedia, 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.