Founding year: the first Rio Hondo post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Rio Hondo’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rio Hondo is more historic than 9% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
D
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rio Hondo’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 Rio Hondo’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 still be D. The pre-1940 share (±1.6 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 Rio Hondo’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bullis Addition ColoniaJones Addition ColoniaLopez ColoniaTatum Addition ColoniaWest Addition Colonia
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The story so far
Rio Hondo, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Rio Hondo yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Rio Hondo is a city in Cameron County, Texas, United States. As of the 2020 census, Rio Hondo had a population of 2,021. It may be included as part of the Brownsville–Harlingen–Raymondville and the Matamoros–Brownsville metropolitan areas.
Its first post office opened in 1911. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 2,356 to 2,021 (-14%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
By decade
No old photos in the archives yet
Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
The Rio Hondo post office opened in 1911, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rio Hondo rank for history?
Rio Hondo is more historic than 9% 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.
How old are the homes in Rio Hondo?
2% of Rio Hondo’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.6 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1986.
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 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.