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History · Chaires

Chaires’ post office opened in 1858, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Chaires was built recently: 6% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 15 buildings.

1858first post office
1on the National Register
6%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Chaires began

When was Chaires founded?

1858

The Chaires post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 308168 years
Founding year: the first Chaires post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Chaires’ past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Chaires are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Chaires’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Chaires’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Chaires came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Chaires.

Read it all →

Chaires was named after one of its earliest founders, Green Hill Chaires, one of three brothers who moved to Florida and helped settle Tallahassee and the surrounding areas. Green Hill and his brothers, Benjamin and Thomas Peter Chaires, all created thriving plantations in the southeastern section of Leon County. They settled down, became wealthy planters and were influential, to varying degrees, on the politics of North Florida. Although the plantations are gone, their legacies still exist today in the names, families, pride and history of the area that is now known as Chaires.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Chaires, decade by decade

Today6 recent
Leon CR1540 at CR15432025Leon CR1540 at CR1543L. Kirk Edwards WMA entrance at Road to the Lake2025L. Kirk Edwards WMA entrance at Road to the LakeFGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Road to the Lake2025FGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Road to the LakeFGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Chaires Cross Road2025FGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Chaires Cross Ro…FGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Benjamin Chaires Road2025FGA Tallahassee Subdivision crossing Benjamin Chaires…Eastbound on Capitola Road2025Eastbound on Capitola Road
On the National Register

1 listing protects 15 historic buildings

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
15
each building in a district counts
first listed
2000
Chaires Community Historic District
Chaires Community Historic District
Districts

Architectural styles listings

Frame Vernacular1
Romanesque Revival1
Chaires Community Historic DistrictFrame Vernacular

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

Famous people close to Chaires

Nobody well known was born in Chaires itself, so here are the best known from just nearby.

See all →
Joanne WoodwardAmerican actress · b. 1930
Jackie RobinsonAmerican baseball player · b. 1919
Shea WhighamAmerican actor · b. 1969
Brad DavisAmerican actor · b. 1949
Teresa EdwardsAmerican basketball player · b. 1964
LoboAmerican singer-songwriter · b. 1943
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Chaires had its own post office from 1858 to 1955.

Chaires
1858–1955
18501940today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Stories next door

History across the town line

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

Tallahassee53 historic placesB+

Questions about Chaires’ history

What year was Chaires founded?

The Chaires post office opened in 1858, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

What is on the National Register in Chaires?

One place: the Chaires Community Historic District (listed 2000).

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). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.