Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Photo: Nicolas Henderson from Coppell, Texas · CC BY 2.0More historic than 25% of U.S. towns. What drives it
Most of Sour Lake was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1979. Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1900 on.
The Sour Lake post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Rosedale (1878), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 25% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Sour Lake is more historic than 25% of U.S. towns. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull 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 Sour Lake’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.
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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Sour Lake’s history is told.
From Wikipedia’s history of Sour Lake.
Sour Lake was first settled around 1835 when the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas granted Stephen Jackson one league of land covering 4,428 acres (17.92 km2) by land grant. Sam Houston visited Sour Lake in his later years. The town is home to one of the biggest sinkholes in Texas.
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.
One decade in the archive so far: the 1900s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
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 Sour Lake’s page.
Retake this view · +15Sour Lake’s post office has been open since 1866. Another post office, Rosedale, 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).
The Sour Lake post office opened in 1866, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Sour Lake is more historic than 25% 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.
6% of Sour Lake’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±3.5 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1979.
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), 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.
c. 1903
2005
2005
2005
2004