Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 22% of U.S. towns · #211 of 638 in Florida. What drives it
Most of Deerfield Beach was built recently: 2% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1978. Below: 11 old photos and papers, maps from 1946 on, and the census since 1930.
Deerfield Beach first appears in the census in 1930. Another post office, Deerfield (1898), opened inside today’s city and later closed.
More historic than 22% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Deerfield Beach is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #211 of 638 in Florida. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
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 Deerfield Beach’s 0.5 sits above most of its state (69% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 4 listings outnumber those of 68% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first census (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 →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Deerfield Beach’s post office has been open since 1939. Another post office, Deerfield, opened and closed inside today’s town.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of Deerfield Beach.
Deerfield Beach's history dates to 1890, when a small settlement named Hillsborough was developed along the Hillsboro River. As the population grew to 20 by 1898, the settlement was served by its own post office, and the town was named Deerfield for the deer that grazed along the river.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
BuiltSeaboard Air Line Railway Station, Old is builtBuiltDeerfield School is built
In the archive1928 Okeechobee Aftermath 16
Born hereGwyndolen Clarke-Reed is born here
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
Born hereDenard Robinson is born here
In the archiveSawgrassExpressway-MainSign-July1992
Born hereJerry Jeudy is born here2 decades in the archive, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1992SawgrassExpressway-MainSign-July1992
1998FEMA - 1255 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1256 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1278 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1279 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1280 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1281 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1282 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1284 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …
1998FEMA - 1289 - Photograph by FEMA News Photo taken on …Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Deerfield Beach. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Deerfield Beach.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Deerfield Beach’s page.
Retake this view · +15Grew from 1,483 people in 1930 to 86,859 in 2020, more than tenfold.
10 censuses, 1930–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Deerfield Beach’s Wikipedia page.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The Deerfield Beach post office opened in 1930, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
Deerfield Beach is more historic than 22% of U.S. towns, #211 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.
4 listings: 4 buildings, among them the Seaboard Air Line Railway Station, Old (listed 1990, the first).
2% of Deerfield Beach’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.0 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1978.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
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 (17), Wikidata (1), the National Register of Historic Places (4), 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) 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.
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