More historic than 15% of U.S. towns · #277 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Bloomingdale was built recently: 0.6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1989. Below: maps from 1921 on and the census since 1990.
Founding year: Wikipedia. First post office: 1879.The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Bloomingdale’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Bloomingdale is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #277 of 638 in Florida. Its age holds the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C−
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Bloomingdale’s overall grade.
Few Florida towns list much on the Register (a typical Florida town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Bloomingdale’s 0.0 sits below most of its state (33% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 0 listings outnumber those of 23% of U.S. towns.
NoteThe founding year comes from Wikipedia alone; no second source gives 1850.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to C. The pre-1940 share (±0.7 points) is firm at this size.
Founding year: Wikipedia (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 Bloomingdale’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Bloomingdale was settled some time before 1850 by John Vickers, John Carney, and others. Carney was killed on April 17, 1856, by Seminoles during the Third Seminole War. Bloomingdale School was founded in 1884, which in 1897 became a teacher's institute, training an average of 54 teachers at a time from as far north as Gainesville and as far south as Miami-Dade County. In 1890 the railway was routed through Brandon, and Bloomingdale began to decline as businessmen like D.J. Galvin, who owned a feed store on the property that is now Mulrennan Middle School, moved to Brandon for access to all the benefits provided by the railroad. In 1910, the post office closed. In 1920, the school closed and the students were sent to Brandon instead. The community declined, or at best remained stable until the 1960s, when it became a bedroom community for Tampa.
Passages that mention Bloomingdale, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Hillsborough County, Florida1928 · page 200Read the page →
Read the text
In 1884 Mr. Buchholz was prime mover in the building of a properly planned school house at Bloomingdale, was elected trustee, and served as teacher in this school from 1884 to 1886. In 1886 he was appointed County Superintendent of Public Instruction in Hillsborough County to succeed Wesley P. Henderson, resigned. He served as Superintendent from 1887 to 1901 and again from 1909 to 1913. From 1901 to 1905 he was Professor of Philosophy and Pedagogy at the Florida State College, Tallahassee, and was Dean of the College from 1905 to 1909.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
History of Hillsborough County, Florida1928 · page 77Read the page →
Read the text
One of the first stores in Brandon was owned and managed by D. J. Galvin, who moved from Bloomingdale and brought into this place its first sawmill. This proved to be a great boon to the people who hitherto had found it necessary to travel over the sand or muddy roads to Tampa for their supplies.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Bloomingdale, 1850 to 1921
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In 1850, according to Wikipedia’s history of the town. Bloomingdale’s post office opened in 1879, and the census of 1990 counted 13,912 people here.
How does Bloomingdale rank for history?
Bloomingdale is more historic than 15% of U.S. towns, #277 of 638 in Florida. 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 Bloomingdale?
0.6% of Bloomingdale’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1989.
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 Wikipedia, 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 old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
