Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Troy

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
C−History
History · Troy

Troy’s post office opened in 1876

More historic than 24% of U.S. towns · #297 of 642 in Texas. What drives it

Most of Troy was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 2001. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1931 on, and the census since 1890.

1876first post office
0on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
6old photos & papers
1famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Troy’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Troy began

When was Troy founded?

1876

The Troy post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1882.

First census: 219 in 18902020 census: 2,375150 years

How historic is Troy?

C−

More historic than 24% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.

What drives the grade ↓
Founding year: the first Troy post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1882.The full story ↓
History grade

What drives Troy’s History grade

On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Troy is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns, #297 of 642 in Texas. Its age holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.

C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Troy’s overall grade.
Founding era1876, from the first post office: founded 1850–1899, an older era than 37% of U.S. townsC+Homes built before 19405.7% of homes (±5.2) · typical TX town 1.6% · U.S. 8.4%CNational RegisterNo listings counted · typical TX town 0.0 per 10,000 · U.S. 2.4C
All U.S. towns we grade (21,289)Ahead of 24%
NewerOlder
Texas towns of 2,500+ (642)Ahead of 54%

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 Troy’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 C− to C. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±5.2 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1882 falls in the same era, so the grade doesn’t depend on which one is used.

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 →

The story

How Troy came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Troy.

Read it all →

Troy was established around a railroad station of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad in 1882. It replaced an older village about two miles north of the current city and which is referred to as Old Troy. Originally, the new town was known as New Troy. A weekly newspaper was established at Troy in 1892.

For a brief period in the 1990s, Troy renamed itself Troy Aikman, Texas, in honor of the Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl-winning quarterback. Signs posted at the city limits on I-35 reflected the name change.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Troy, 1876 to 1933

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

  1. 19th century
  2. 1876Post officeThe Troy post office opens
  3. 1886Born hereWilliam Robert Wallace is born here
  4. 20th century
  5. 1931On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1933In the archiveEast Main Street North Elevations - Main Street, Main Street
By decade

Troy, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1930s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1930s6 items
East Main Street North Elevations - Main Street, Main Street1933East Main Street North Elevations - Main Street, Main…East Main Street South Elevations - Main Street, Main Street1933East Main Street South Elevations - Main Street, Main…East Site Elevations - Main Street, Main Street1933East Site Elevations - Main Street, Main StreetHistoric Troy Spatial Use and Volumetric Analysis - Main Street, Main Street1933Historic Troy Spatial Use and Volumetric Analysis - M…Historic Troy Spatial Use and Volumetric Analysis - Main Street, Main Street1933Historic Troy Spatial Use and Volumetric Analysis - M…Site Plan - Main Street, Main Street1933Site Plan - Main Street, Main Street
1940s–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
On the map

Troy on the map, 1931 to 1993

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

Troy on the 1931 USGS mapTroy on the 1965 USGS mapTroy on the 1978 USGS mapTroy on the 1993 USGS map1931Belton 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 Troy.

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.

East Main Street North Elevations - Main Street, Main Street
Retake this viewEast Main Street North Elevations - Main Street, Main Street, 1933

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Troy, census by census

05001,0001,5002,0002,50019001920194019601980200020202,375

Grew from 219 people in 1890 to 2,375 in 2020, more than tenfold.

7 censuses, 1890–2020.

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

Help out

Finish Troy’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewEast Main Street North Elevations - Mai…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

PendletonIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its town

Questions about Troy’s history

What year was Troy founded?

The Troy post office opened in 1876, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1882.

How does Troy rank for history?

Troy is more historic than 24% of U.S. towns, #297 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.

How old are the homes in Troy?

6% of Troy’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±5.2 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 2001.

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), 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) 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.