Most of Eatonville was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1970. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 48 buildings. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1970 on, and the census since 1900.
Founding year: the first Eatonville post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓
History grade
What drives Eatonville’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Eatonville is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its share of homes from before 1940 pulls it down.
C+
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Eatonville’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 Eatonville’s 210 sits above most of its state (97% of Florida towns have fewer) while its 48 historic buildings outnumber those of 85% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from D to B+. The pre-1940 share (±1.4 points) is firm at this size. 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 Eatonville’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Ten years after the Emancipation Proclamation, formerly enslaved people migrated to rural Central Florida, finding work in the citrus groves. Joseph "J.E." Clark and several friends attempted to purchase a block of land to establish a "colony for colored people, but so great was the prejudice then existing against the Negro that no one would sell them land for such a purpose", according to Clark. Lewis Lawrence, originally from Utica, New York, agreed to help them in 1881. Lawrence convinced Captain Josiah Eaton, a neighbor and friend, to sell him 22 acres, which Lawrence subdivided. Upon each lot he had a small house constructed and instructed an agent to sell them. An article in the Tallahassee Weekly Floridian newspaper titled, "A Negro Colony in Florida" stated,
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 Eatonville post office opened in 1889, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Eatonville rank for history?
Eatonville is more historic than 40% of U.S. towns. 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 Eatonville?
One place: the Eatonville Historic District (listed 1998).
How old are the homes in Eatonville?
0.0% of Eatonville’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±1.4 points), against a typical 0.6% for a Florida town; the median home was built in 1970.
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 (6), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.
1907
1991
2004
