Rockwall’s post office opened in 1854, and 1 of its places is on the National Register
More historic than 28% of U.S. towns · #268 of 642 in Texas. What drives it
Most of Rockwall was built recently: 0.5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2003. Its Register listing is the First Methodist Church of Rockwall. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1900 on, and the census since 1880.
Founding year: the first Rockwall post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rockwall’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rockwall is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #268 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 Rockwall’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 Rockwall’s 0.2 sits above most of its state (69% 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 (±0.4 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 Rockwall’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
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.
The association of Paleo-Indian artifacts with extinct Pleistocene mammal remains in various archeological sites within the Texas Prairie-Savannah Region of eastern North Central Texas, including a site in Collin County, and Clovis points recovered from the Brushy Creek Clovis Site in Hunt County demonstrates that the Rockwall region was occupied by prehistoric Native American cultures at least as far back as 13,500 to 13,000 years ago. More recently, the Rockwall region was occupied by Caddo Indians. Creek Indians moved to the area in the early 19th century. In 1925, Byron Khun de Prorok claimed that the wall was built by a prehistoric race, though this has been widely dismissed .
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 Rockwall post office opened in 1854, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rockwall rank for history?
Rockwall is more historic than 28% of U.S. towns, #268 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 Rockwall?
One place: the First Methodist Church of Rockwall (listed 2007).
How old are the homes in Rockwall?
0.5% of Rockwall’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2003.
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), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
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