The story
Read it all →How Hallwood came to be
From Wikipedia’s history of Hallwood.
Wessells Root Cellar was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
–Not graded
History · Hallwood
Hallwood’s post office opened in 1884, and 49% of its homes were built before 1940
Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1943 on, and the census since 1960.
1884first post office
0on the National Register
49%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Quick answers
How Hallwood began
When was Hallwood founded?
1884
The Hallwood post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name.
First census: 269 in 19602020 census: 202142 years
Founding year: the first Hallwood post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
What stands out about Hallwood’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
★ What stands out · Help out
Start Hallwood’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Hallwood’s history is told.
Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.By decade
Hallwood, decade by decade
Date unknown1 to date
Date?On the map
Hallwood on the map, 1943 to 1968
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Hallwood. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
1943Hallwood sheet · 1:31,680U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Hallwood.
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.
Retake this viewWessel's Root Cellar, State Routes 701 & 692 vicinity
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Hallwood’s page.
Retake this view · +15People over time
Hallwood, census by census
Between 202 and 290 people in every census since 1960.
7 censuses, 1960–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Hallwood’s Wikipedia page.
Famous people
See all →Famous people close to Hallwood
Nobody well known was born in Hallwood itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.
B
Bill HinnantAmerican actor · b. 1935S
Skip HinnantAmerican actor · b. 1940
Questions about Hallwood’s history
What year was Hallwood founded?
The Hallwood post office opened in 1884, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Memory lane
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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). How TownRatings grades history →
From the Library of Congress (1), Wikipedia, 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.