Founding year: the first Wills Point post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1873.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Wills Point’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Wills Point is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #222 of 642 in Texas. Its share of homes from before 1940 holds the grade up; its National Register listings pull it down.
C
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Wills Point’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 Wills Point’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 (±6.9 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date; Wikidata’s 1873 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 →
What stands out about Wills Point’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.
1885Sheet 1 of 1
Edition
Sheets
BrickWoodStone
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Founded in 1873, Wills Point derives its name from an early American settler, William Wills, who arrived in the area circa 1848. He purchased a cabin from Adam Sullivan in 1852. The name "point" may also derive from the shape of the original timberline near the cabin, though unsubstantiated arguments have indicated that the name relates to the area's elevation. The layout of the city was the work of engineer General Grenville M. Dodge of the California Construction Company. The downtown streets laid with red bricks upon packed sand in the 1920s by locals remain in use. Downtown Wills Point has many of its original buildings that are over 100 years old, including the Wills cabin, a drug store, a dry good store, and a law office.
The Wills Point post office opened in 1870, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1873.
How does Wills Point rank for history?
Wills Point is more historic than 33% of U.S. towns, #222 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 Wills Point?
12% of Wills Point’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.9 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1975.
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), 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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