Founding year: the first Winnsboro post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Winnsboro’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Winnsboro is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #111 of 642 in Texas. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Winnsboro’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 Winnsboro’s 2.9 sits above most of its state (78% 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 C+ to B+. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±6.5 points). 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 Winnsboro’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.
Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
The story so far
Winnsboro, in brief
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Winnsboro yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Winnsboro is a city in Franklin and Wood counties in northeastern Texas, United States, north of Tyler. The population was 3,455 at the 2020 census. Settlement of Winnsboro began in the 1850s with a post office established between 1854 and 1855.
Its first post office opened in 1855. Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 3,434 in 2010, 3,455 in 2020.
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Winnsboro, 1855 to 1986
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
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 Winnsboro post office opened in 1855, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Winnsboro rank for history?
Winnsboro is more historic than 56% of U.S. towns, #111 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 Winnsboro?
One place: the Marcus DeWitt Carlock House (listed 2013).
How old are the homes in Winnsboro?
14% of Winnsboro’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±6.5 points), against a typical 1.6% for a Texas town; the median home was built in 1971.
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 (2), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
2004
