Most of Rosharon was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2005. Below: 2 old photos and papers and maps from 1943 on.
Founding year: the first Rosharon post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Rosharon’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Rosharon is more historic than 3% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
D−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Rosharon’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 Rosharon’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 range from D− to D. The pre-1940 share (±2.1 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 Rosharon’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The Rosharon town site went unnamed during its early years. The area was settled by cotton and sugar plantations before the Civil War. Once the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway (Columbia Tap) was completed in 1859, the Rosharon stop on the train line was given the name Masterson's Station, after a nearby plantation owned by Thomas G. Masterson (ca. 1813–1884). Rosharon was known locally by trainmen as "Buttermilk Station" because an early resident was known to bring a bucket of buttermilk and a dipper to the railroad station to give the engineer and crew a drink.
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 Rosharon post office opened in 1912, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Rosharon rank for history?
Rosharon is more historic than 3% 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 Rosharon?
0.0% of Rosharon’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±2.1 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2005.
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), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, 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.
1911
2022
2022
2016
2016
